FCBARCELONA.CAT

23.11.2008 21:55

Guardiola: “We just didn’t have that final finish”

Vanessa Forns

After the one all draw with Getafe, Pep Guardiola said he was pleased with the way his team had played. He thinks they dominated the game and is only disappointed by a lack of “precise finishing”.

Thanks to a Keita header in the 71st minute, Barça got a point out of their match with Getafe. Once again Josep Guardiola was full of praise for his players. “Overall I think we dominated the game and I’m happy with how it went,” he commented. “In general we played well.”

Happy with the team

Despite not winning the match, Guardiola said he was happy overall with how the team played. “Maybe we rushed things a bit in the last third and we didn’t quite get the final pass or cross right,” he said. “But we dominated the game, especially in the second half.”

Praise for Getafe

The Barça manager was full of praise for this evening’s opponents. “Getafe are a good team with excellent players,” he said, before adding that the side managed by Víctor Muñoz had played “extremely well” at Camp Nou.

Bojan’s performance

Bojan Krkic was in the starting XI again this Sunday. “I have to give him whatever he needs to grow as a footballer, and I’m convinced he’ll do that,” explained Guardiola. “He finds it a bit harder where he played but he’s always making a contribution and you have to keep pushing him so that he can do his very best. I’ll check tomorrow to see if he’s feeling a bit down, which I doubt, but if he is we’ll try to help him.”

Next up Sporting Lisbon

When asked about whether the team had missed Messi, Guardiola said that “Messi is a necessary player, a special player, a very good player, but I’ve got others. I can only talk about the game and the people who played in it as anything else would be pure speculation”. The Barça coach is already turning his thoughts to Wednesday’s Champions League clash in Portugal against Sporting Lisbon: “Now we need to rest a bit and get ready for Wednesday’s game to try to secure top spot in the group”.