He said he always knew that a game with Real Madrid was going to be tough, and also admitted that his team struggled to get into its rhythm. He added that he had been thoroughly impressed by Mourinho’s team and praised his players for what he described as a ‘titanic effort’.

Home fans await

Guardiola felt the 2-2 draw was a good result, especially considering the fact that Madrid “clearly had more chances than we did. We got a good result because of the amazing generosity of our players.” He also made a plea to the fans ahead of the return leg at the Camp Nou: “I hope we get the support of our people, and that they help us when our legs can’t.”

Speaking about the opposition, he said “Madrid were very impressive. They are always a very hard team to play. We worked very hard and that’s the result we got. There was a lot of danger in this match, and but we managed to stay compact.” Asked why Barça had so much less possession than they usually do, he said it was because of “the good work that Madrid did on the pitch, they made it very hard for us to play the ball from the back”.

Satisfied with Alexis debut

Alexis Sánchez played all 90 minutes in his first official outing for FC Barcelona, and Guardiola said the Chilean “made a very good impression … He did an outstanding job on both wings. He helped a lot and I’m very satisfied. It would have been harder without him.”

The manager also said that Villa “scored an amazing goal” and that Víctor Valdés “never makes mistakes, he’s a quality player, a safeguard for us”. Turning to the two centre backs, he said “Abidal already played in that position for a long time, and Mascherano is getting more used to it. We needed people with legs at the back”.