Guardiola was very cautious ahead of the first leg and he repeated his respect for Shaktar on Monday, reminding reporters: “there’s still 90 minutes to go and we will be playing in an immense stadium with a big atmosphere”.

Going out for a win

With the Madrid games coming up, the boss again insisted on the need for his players: “to focus on the game in hand. Since we’ve been together we have always taken every game seriously and not looked ahead to the next one. Our idea against Shakhtar is to go out and win the game, scoring one or two goals. That’s the idea we always have and we will stick with it”.

No intention of resting players

Guardiola will wait until match day to assess the state of his players’ fitness, explaining: “we’ll have to see how we find them, bearing in mind we’ve just come off a tough game against Almeria and made the long trip over here” However, he made it clear he wouldn’t be resting any players with an eye to the upcoming games: “reserving players now? We are playing for a spot in the Champions League semi finals and we have to come out strong here. Tomorrow we’ll see how the players are in terms of fitness, that’s all”. Asked as to whether Messi would start, Guardiola repeated: “we will see how he is tomorrow and make a decision then”.

“I don’t think the fans are thinking about the treble”

The boss was also asked if the fans could start to turn their thoughts to another treble winning end to the season and he was adamant: “I don’t think the fans are thinking about winning the treble. There’s still a lot to play for. The most important thing and what really makes me proud is that after three years together we are coming to the end of the season with all of our options intact”.