FCBARCELONA.CAT

10.04.2010 23:59

Guardiola urges caution

Vanessa Forns

Although he was obviously happy with his team’s win at the Bernabeu, Pep Guardiola warned: “we’ve taken an important step, but there’s still a world of games ahead of us to play”.

Guardiola showed his typical humility and prudence, insisting: “the team’s happy and we are very relaxed. There are still a lot of games to play before the league is over, though we knew it was important to win here”.

“A long way to go still”

Guardiola reiterated that: “everything is done and dusted yet, there are still plenty of points to play for – next week’s two games will be fundamental. This win will be worth it if we end up champions – we’re not there yet and we have a few tough games ahead. We need to keep on playing as we have been – there’s still a long way to go”.

An honour to win at the Bernabeu

The win itself was clearly important to the boss, regardless of what effect it has on the title race: “we came to the home of the league leaders who’d won all 15 games here so far this season. I give a lot of value to winning this one – it’s an honour to come here and win. They’ve got 77 points and that’s incredible”.

Hard fought win

Commenting on the way the game worked out, the boss reckoned: “Madrid are a team who can kill you on the break. The pitch was a bit slippery, but after the goal we calmed things down and had more control. It was a very hard fought game against a team full of great players, who are impressive all over the pitch. We set ourselves the objective of being true to ourselves, which we were”.

Players are the secret to success

Asked what the secret of the team was, Guardiola revealed: “we’ve got good players. I try and make sure that they all run and that they help each other, but there aren’t many secrets – I work hard, work long hours and I’ve got good players. They know that if they don’t run, I’ll let them know and since they don’t like that, they work all the harder”.

Cristiano still without a goal against Barca

Cristiano Ronaldo has still to break his duck against Barca, but Guardiola was quick to praise the Madrid striker: “he’s an enormous talent, very strong. We tried to isolate him and keep him away from the game. He’s very dangerous when we have the ball, because they find him very quickly if we lose it and he’s hard to stop then. Just because he’s not scored against us yet doesn’t mean he’s not a very good player”.