22.01.2011 23:20

Pep praises consistency

Vanessa Forns

Josep Guardiola expressed his satisfaction with his players’ performance against Racing and also with their consistently high level they are putting in: “that’s what makes this team great”, he declared.

The boss believes: “the team played better than people think – it’s hard to prepare for so many games on the run, but that’s what makes this team great”.

Good response to Betis defeat

Guardiola was “very satisfied” with the win over Racing, explaining: “it was a cold night, and after losing the last game and the effort we put in, this was a potentially tricky game, but both the players and the fans responded in their own way to the circumstances in an exceptional manner”.

Valdés

Looking beyond the goals of Messi, Pedro and Iniesta, Guardiola reserved his praise for Victor Valdes, stressing: “we made a lot of chances again, but I want to congratulate Victor for his performance. It’s not easy to take part in a game when you are only intermittently called on, especially with this cold, and make great stops like his from Adrian”.

Focus on Almeria and Hercules

Guardiola also claimed: “it’s an honour to equal Rijkaard’s team’s record” of 14 successive league wins, but stressed that he is focussed now on the Almeria and Hercules games: “we need the Stadium to be full on Wednesday, because we are in the semi finals and we want a hand from the fans. We are just a couple of games from reaching the final in April. Saturday’s game is one of the most complicated trips we’ll have in the league – it’ll be a tough game against Hercules”.

Bojan

Finally, Guardiola had words of praise for Bojan and Keita: Bojan: “is a young player who is still learning and he does everything we ask of him. I want him to do what he did today. He gives us a lot and he will continue to do so. We need to help him a lot and he has to be strong. He is very talented and he’ll get through whatever he has to His movement is spectacular and I don’t want him judged just on whether he scores or not”.

Keita

As for Keita, Guardiola once again stressed the importance of Keita to the squad: “there is nobody else like him. He’s irreplaceable for this type of game. We all need to learn from him. He’s untouchable for me. He has a generosity in understanding the situation that makes him irreplaceable. I hope he continues to have that patience”.