FCBARCELONA.CAT

26.08.2008 23:19

Guardiola: “Objective achieved”

Vanessa Forns

Despite losing to Wisla Krakow (1-0), Pep Guardiola was upbeat about the way the team played and was delighted that Barça will be playing in the Champions League.

The FC Barcelona first team lost their first game of the season tonight but the Barça manager was happy with his players’ attitude and was delighted to have sealed passage into Europe’s premier club competition: “I am very satisfied with the team’s behaviour” he said . “The aim was to qualify for the Champions League and we did that. I am absolutely delighted”.

“No complaints”

Guardiola admitted that the result of the first leg affected his approach to the game: “We weren’t sure whether to attack or hold on to the result. We played thinking about the 4-0 win in the first leg. In the second half we changed our tune”. He said it was not so much about losing as “the way you lose. Of course a defeat hurts but in today’s case there are no complaints. Generally speaking we played a good game”.

It might have been the first loss of the season, but for the FCB boss it was not “a step in the wrong direction. Yes, we were lacking accuracy but we had an opponent that can play too, and we had four or five chances against their keeper. We lost, but we could have drawn or even won”.

League on their minds

On Wisla Krakow, Guardiola said they were “a very well organised team in which you can sense the manager’s influence”, and knows that this season Barça will have to play many games like this, “at difficult grounds against theoretically inferior opponents”. One example could be next week’s trip to Numancia where “I am quite aware that playing against newly promoted teams is always difficult”.

Major satisfaction

Guardiola ended his conference by reminding listeners that he was simply delighted that “the team is in the Champions League! We have beaten a good team. I have seen so many games like this that turn out to be complicated...”