FCBARCELONA.CAT

29.11.2009 22:15

“Our character and resilience got us the win”

Vanessa Forns

Barca won El Classico after playing for the best pat of half an hour with just 10 men and boss Pep Guardiola pinpointed the team's “character and resilience” as key to the victory.

Barca ended the weekend back on top of La Liga after a hard won win over Real Madrid. Guardiola insisted that playing against such a top side with just 10 men from the 62nd minute showed his team's “character and resilience. We know what we want, we've talked about how we played against Inter and that's what we want to get back to”

Real Madrid's quality

Guardiola gave particular value to the win given the quality that Pellegrini's team showed on the night: “Real Madrid put in a great game and they are a top team. They are the team who've invested most money. They try and pass the ball and they can dominate possession or come at you on the counter. If you look at them player by player, they are a high class team. Ever since I've been a pro, I've always thought that Madrid are a a tough team to beat, even more so when they come here. Beating them with 10 men is even more praiseworthy”.

“There's still a long way to go”

The three points from the win put Barca back on top, two points ahead of Madrid, but Guardiola wasn't reading too much into that: “sure, we're ahead again, but there is a long way to go yet. We knew we had to make a big effort and we did”.

“An intuitive action"

Guardiola also commented on Sergio Busquets' sending off: “it could happen to anybody, even a more experienced player. It was an intuitive action. These things can happen and they do. I felt good about the game we were playing in the second half till he went. After that we tried to keep playing and to hold out with 10 against Madrid has a lot of merit”.

Praise for Valdes and Puyol

Víctor Valdés was one of Barca's stars on the night, making a great save from Cristiano Ronaldo in the first half and Guardiola told his post match press conference: “Victor is always there at important moments. We are lucky that he has great stability. That was great save”. Puyol also made a couple of last ditch tackles to keep Madrid at bay and Guardiola commented: “he's playing as if he was just a twenty-year-old this season. He's impeccable”.

Next test on Wednesday

Finally Guardiola insisted that Wednesday's game against Jerez would be a real test for the team: “we've come through two emotionally highly charged games. Wednesday will be a test and we'll see if we have a team that really wants to win things”.