FCBARCELONA.CAT

01.05.2010 23:59

Guardiola proud of players

Vanessa Forns

Although Josep Guardiola admitted his players were still down after their defeat to Inter, he reckoned they showed a great ability to come back from that blow when they saw off Villarreal on Saturday night.

However the league ends up, Guradiola expressed his pride in his team: “I admire those players, whether we are champions or not. I’m proud of them whether we win or not- it’s a privilege to be their manager”.

Effort

“You never know how a team is going to react, but I knew they would give everything because that is one of our fundamental virtues. That’s why the fans are so behind us and that’s how we managed to put in such a fine performance, particularly in the first half. I’m very satisfied with them. Whatever happens, we will go on holiday at the end of this season proud of everything we have done”.

Ibra

Guardiola was quizzed as to why he’d left Ibra on the bench and given Bojan a start and he responded: “Ibra reacted really well. He’s an enormous talent, but we have another, smaller player, who’s also very good”.

Bojan

The boss didn’t stop there in his praise for the young Catalan, insisting: “he’s got a long future at this club. You know what I think of him. He scored a great goal and worked really hard. He’s always sharp in front of goal and I’m very happy with his hard work - he deserves what he got”.

Xavi

Although he was doubtful up until kick off, Xavi put in another stellar performance, but Guardiola warned that his foot injury: “could mean he misses the World Cup, fortunately he’s not made it worse” and went on: “he is an example to us all. He knew we needed him and he made the extra effort. He’s the best midfielder the club has ever had”.

Guardiola also referred to the record 90 points his team have taken this season: “we’ve lost just one game. It’s unbelievable. If we don’t win the title, then we don’t, but everyone was saying we’d blown it before this game and we were going to get beaten, but my players went for it and we won”.