Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola Expecting A Top-Notch Performance Against Arsenal - 7M sport

Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola Expecting A Top-Notch Performance Against Arsenal

Posted Tuesday, April 06, 2010 by Goal.com

Guardiola says his team are confident that they can reach the semi-finals of the Champions League...

Pep Guardiola believes that Arsenal will offer a real challenge to his team but has faith in his squad and thinks the Blaugrana have what it takes to reach the last four.

When asked whether the introduction of Theo Walcott changed the tide of the game for Arsenal, Guardiola was quick to respond that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia played a vital role in the comeback.

"It was not Walcott, I would say that it was the ten or eleven saves that Almunia made that was the difference," he said at the pre-match press conference.

"Walcott played well against us and also in his last game in the league. He has his quality. We are going to try and keep the ball and play it simple. This is the best way to stop Arsenal from using the quality of Walcott."

Guardiola was also quick to shoot down the belief that perhaps Arsenal hold a psychological advantage having come from behind to force a draw in the first leg.

"This can happen because Arsenal are a good team. They also want the ball and they can also create chances. This is the reason they came back and made it 2-2. I don't know what my players think about that because I am not in the mind of my players.

"But we are going to try and be ourselves and that means to keep the ball. I think Arsene Wenger thinks the same. The team which has more time on the ball is going to win. We are going to play this game like it's a final," Guardiola stated.

The Blaugrana tactician was also grateful for the compliments given to his team, by the English media, but when he was asked whether Barcelona has taken football to another level Guardiola urged more caution.

"I think we play good football and play at a high level. When you create 22 chances away from home in the Champions League and you create eleven chances in the first fifteen minutes then you have to be proud of the players.

"But this is not enough. You have to win to make sense of that performance against Arsenal. You have to go to the semi finals. If not, then the people in London will say 'Oh yeah one time Barcelona came here and played good but we are in the semi-finals and they went home'. So that is the most important thing.

"We have to forget the last performance against Arsenal. We have to play again and have another good performance. If we don't have eleven players 100% focused on the game then it will be tough for us to reach the semi-finals," he concluded.



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