FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.02.2010 19:51

Guardiola demands more

Sandra Sarmiento

Guardiola warned his players that they will have to be at their best against Stuttgart: “This standard won’t be enough to put us through to the quarterfinals”.

Guardiola is determined that Barça will not go out of the competition because of a lack of focus. After the 4-0 defeat of Racing on Saturday, he warned the players: “We have to take another step forward if we want to be champions”. Speaking on Monday evening ahead of the Stuttgart clash, he assured reporters: “Scoring four goals against Racing has merit but it’s not enough to compete with German football. We know this standard won’t be enough to put us through to the quarterfinals. We have to recover our good form”.

The lesson of Lyon

Last season, Barça suffered during the first half hour of their match against Lyon after Juninho scored from a free kick: "It was a very good experience. Perhaps our toughest tie. Also, in recent years the champions have gone out in the R16. We have to fight against the feeling that we will win everything. Everybody thinks we’ll clinch the tie in the first leg and if we believe that we’ll have no chance of getting through to the quarterfinal”.

Objective: score goals

Score and not concede. That would be the perfect match and Guardiola has a clear idea of what he wants to see: “We have to score goals, we have to attack well, not run with the ball and pass it about. Under Gross Stuttgart have great numbers when it comes to goals and results. They’ve got a lot of interesting things”.

Christian Gross

Christian Gross is managing for the first time in the Bundesliga and couldn’t have made a better start. Last season he took Basle into the Champions League and Guardiola is clearly impressed: “When he was manager of Basle he surprised me in many things. When there are good managers who know what they have to do it’s normal to obtain good results”. Under the Swiss manager, Stuttgart have won 80% 0f their points in the Bundesliga: “We’ll be playing against one of the best teams in Europe”.

Cruyff’s opinion

"The worse match of the Guardiola era". Johan Cruyff made the claim in a Catalan newspaper and Guardiola accepts and shares the opinion: “He’s right to a large extent. To be champions we have to play better. I knew that before the match and after the match. Johan is an inspiration to me and one of the reasons why I am here”.