18.01.2011 14:35

“We are not going to defend any result, but to win”

Jordi Clos

Coach Pep Guardiola is full of respect for Betis and aware of the tommorrow night game’s importance. “It is not a game for relaxation or discharging anything. It is a fully-charged game in which we have to compete hard and play to win.”

Barça play the second leg of their quarter final against Betis on Wednesday, but despite the 5-0 lead, the coach wants no relaxation. “This is the best first leg result we have ever got from a cup tie, but if it was all decided, we wouldn’t be travelling” said Pep Guardiola.

He was actually very impressed with the Andalusians at the Camp Nou: “We are travelling with respect for the oposition, who we imagined would be strong, but we have to be careful after the first leg because they have well founded arguments that they are going to cause us problems”.

Top quality opposition

Guardiola has said he’ll be taking a strong team to Betis. “I have ideas about the team. Against another team I might have used reserve players, but not against Betis no … It is not a game for relaxation or discharging anything. It is a fully-charged game in which we have to compete hard and play to win”.

The message he has put across to his players is that “We are not going to defend any result, but to win. It would be good for us to take it seriously … I hope that when they see the pictures I have to show them tomorrow, that they’ll realise just what we are up against”.

The desire

Loyal to his ideas (“to win big things we have to focus on what we have right in front of us”), Pep Guardiola said he’d be delighted to celebrate his 40th birthday “by competing as we have done until now … I’d like to feel at the end of the year that we have won things because we were the best … There is no guarantee that the second half of the season will be as good for us as the first was. If there is a team that still has lives, then that’s Madrid. It is great to have four more points than them, but there are 19 games still to play”.

Thiago’s position

The day after it was revealed that Thiago will be joining the first team next season, Guardiola explained why he will be training with the reserves. “We wanted to have a very close look closely at how capable he is of playing for us, and we now know he is. But there are more of us now that Afellay is here, and Thiago is too young to be sitting on the bench. I want him to play games … He is a very special player, unique in many ways … Whenever he has played for us he has given us something different”.