FCBARCELONA.CAT

31.08.2009 23:58

Guardiola pleased with Sporting display

Vanessa Forns

Pep Guardiola admitted that FC Barcelona did not produce their best performance to overcome Sporting de Gijón on Monday evening in Camp Nou, but was pleased with the display as it came so soon after the European Super Cup Final.

The Blaugrana coach was impressed after seeing Bojan Krkic, Seydou Keita and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all score to open his team's league campaign with a convincing win. "The game was played out as predicted after all the efforts of the other day," he told the media. "I cannot take anything away from the team. It makes me happy that we played like this. Effort is al the players can give and again they did that. We can play well or badly, but you have to always give everything."

Coaching compliments

Sporting put up a good performance themselves and Guardiola thinks that they will do well this term. "They are a team that I have a lot of sympathy for," he explained. "They have a coach that has courage and ambition and I am convinced that they will have a good season."

Media help

Guardiola then turned his attention to the assembled journalists and told them they would have to become like the players and focus on one game at a a time. "I think it would be best if the constant comments about how many trophies the team would win were stopped in order to help the team," he stated. "Do not keep on with this because it does not help. If you want to help stop asking about these things. If we win one trophy more it will be a good season."

Bojan and Maxwell

Bojan and Maxwell both limped out of the Sporting game and Guardiola explained what was wrong. "It seems that Maxwell only has a small knock, while Bojan could be our for two or three weeks," he said. "We will work with Bojan because we need him. I have the feeling that he has stepped up. He is intuitive, prepared and has a lot of confidence when he is on the pitch.

"It would be negative if I thought that injuries would cause us problems. We do not have a big squad, but we are united and when someone is injured we must only think about them recovering and to know that there are people that can come in to play."

Keita and Ibrahimovic

On Keita and his impressive performance, Guardiola was full of praise. "His generosity has no limits," he commented. "He is a player that gives so much and that improves as the game goes on. This year he will play a lot." On Ibrahimovic scoring the coach added: "I am pleased he scored today. He played for 90 minutes and that is also a good sign and now he will continue to work. He is adapting and slowly-but-surely he will find his level."