Although Josep Guardiola admitted his players were still down after their defeat to Inter, he reckoned they showed a great ability to come back from that blow when they saw off Villarreal on Saturday night.
However the league ends up, Guradiola expressed his pride in his team: “I admire those
players, whether we are champions or not. I’m proud of them whether we win or not- it’s
a privilege to be their manager”.
Effort
“You never know how a team is going to react, but I knew they
would give everything because that is one of our fundamental virtues. That’s why the fans are
so behind us and that’s how we managed to put in such a fine performance, particularly in the
first half. I’m very satisfied with them. Whatever happens, we will go on holiday at the end
of this season proud of everything we have done”.
Ibra
Guardiola was quizzed as to why he’d left Ibra on the bench and given Bojan a
start and he responded: “Ibra reacted really well. He’s an enormous talent, but we have
another, smaller player, who’s also very good”.
Bojan
The boss didn’t stop there in his praise for the young Catalan,
insisting: “he’s got a long future at this club. You know what I think of him. He
scored a great goal and worked really hard. He’s always sharp in front of goal and I’m
very happy with his hard work - he deserves what he got”.
Xavi
Although he was doubtful up until kick off, Xavi put in another stellar
performance, but Guardiola warned that his foot injury: “could mean he misses the World Cup,
fortunately he’s not made it worse” and went on: “he is an example to us all. He
knew we needed him and he made the extra effort. He’s the best midfielder the club has ever
had”.
Guardiola also referred to the record 90 points his team have taken this season:
“we’ve lost just one game. It’s unbelievable. If we don’t win the title,
then we don’t, but everyone was saying we’d blown it before this game and we were going
to get beaten, but my players went for it and we won”.
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Laporta: “the players deserve it”
Joan Laporta was particularly happy with the way the players came back from last Wednesday’s
disappointment: “I expected an important reaction. I could see it in the players’
faces. This team have a winners’ mentality, more than any other team in our history. This was
a crunch game and we gave a great display, staying true to our idea of how football should be
played”.
For Laporta, “the team were superior. We deserved it. The players wanted to give the
fans a boost and they really are giving everything”.