Guardiola predicts a great game in Valencia

Barcelona (FCB).- FC Barcelona’s manager, Pep Guardiola, praised the Valencia team and made it clear that it would not be an easy task to take the three points from Mestalla stadium on Wednesday evening (22h CET): “they are the league leaders right now and they are looking really strong. We are going to a tough ground and their fans will be right behind them. They also have a great coach who has shown he is capable of taking a team that has lost players like Villa, Silva and Mata and making them into a very competitive outfit, as they are showing at the start of this campaign”. Guardiola also talked about the Qatar Foundation and the board’s decision to make the club’s general assembly to validate the agreement reached. He remembered the two years he spent in Qatar, said he was very well treated there, and reflected about how the relations between the Western and Muslim worlds.

Tactics

Asked about his tactics for the match, Guardiola explained: “the most important thing isn’t whether we play with three or four at the back, it’s rather about finding a balance that allows us to play our attacking game and keep possession and our position on the pitch. Against Osasuna we played Alves up front and it worked okay, but we are more used to playing with a four man defence. Playing with three at the back in Mestalla stadium might be a bit risky No system is infallible –we’ll make our decision tomorrow”.

The League three games in

Guardiola also gave his take on the league after the first three games: “ we didn’t need Madrid to lose at Llevant to realise that everything is going to be tough and each year it’s harder. Nobody is giving anything away in this league. The next two games aren’t about us laying down a marker: they will be two important games , but they won’t be decisive”.

One game at a time

The chance of starting a run of wins isn’t what Guardiola is concerned about either: “winning runs, records and things like that don’t take you anywhere –winning games comes from hard work and taking each game as it comes. Wining always helps of course, but this is a long distance race. However, I can assure you that we will go out tomorrow feeling very strong”.

Spanish Cup headaches

Guardiola also reacted to the RFEF decision to schedule Barça’s first Cup game on November 16th – a day after an international match day – as a result of FC Barcelona playing in the World Club Cup on the originally planned date: “it’s a problem and someone will have to sort it out. I can only field 4 B team players and I’ll probably only have three or four available from the first team squad. If the rest are with their national squads, I don’t know what we will do”.

Qatar

Barça’s coach also expressed his satisfaction with the board’s decision to ask the members representatives to decide on the Qatar sponsorship issue: “it’s very good that we debate this and also a very good decision of the board’s to let the members decide on it. It’s one of the healthy democratic values we have. I can tell you that I lived for two years in Qatar and my family and I received wonderful treatment. Qatar is opening up to the Western world and I know the efforts that the Qatar Foundation is putting in to do some really good things. I think that we often don’t understand the Muslim world –nor they us. Qatar is on a roll right now, with the World Cup going there and their bid for the Olympics and that is the result of an extraordinary effort that the country is making to open itself to the world, whilst maintaining its own traditions. These are difficult times and the board has the obligation to search for alternatives. Qatar is the most open Muslim country and the closest to the Western democracies, but they need time. If the members decide to continue, then we will still have the sponsorship of a foundation which is doing things for research and for culture, if not, then we will move ahead with different resources. Whatever happens, the players will continue to run and fight, which in the end is the most important thing”.