“It’s a pity we didn’t have all the players available”, commented Guardiola after the game on Saturday night , though he refused to look for excuses and claimed he was “satisfied” with his team’s performance, adding: “I’m very pleased with how we played. We found it hard in the first half, but we improved in the second”.

One of the aims of the Tour is to make the American public appreciate Barça’s style of play: “one of my objectives was that you people all enjoy the way we play and that you can see us do just that”.

Returning to the game, Guardiola reckoned: “in general, we played very well, though we didn’t have enough possession in the first half”. Guardiola also believed that the hot and humid conditions didn’t help: “the players wanted to do the job, but they couldn’t quite manage it”.

Finally, the boss had words of praise for his youngsters and for the injured Afellay.