Guardiola: “The only option is to win” against Real Madrid

Barcelona (FCB).- Josep Guardiola believes that the team that wins on Saturday (20h CET) “will be reinforced ahead of next week’s Champions League round.” The manager held a press conference on Friday evening, 24 hours before the match. He is convinced that no matter what the result is, that after the match “we have to adapt to another decisive match and think about how we can attack and defend against Chelsea to get to the final.”

Josep Guardiola was very clear, if FC Barcelona does not win the three points against Real Madrid on Saturday, “the league will have a new champion.” The manager, who is convinced that Mourinho’s team “will try to win the match,” reminded the press room that even if Barça win the three points that “the competition will still be in Madrid’s hands.” Guardiola gave his word that his team will come out onto the pitch tomorrow with one goal in mind: “to attack.” The manager promised that his team will play the match “with tranquility and the peace of mind knowing that they’ve already done their work, without reproach.”

Guardiola is very clear that FC Barcelona must win on Saturday: “our only option is to win, we have a very small chance and we must try to take it. If it doesn’t work out we’ll have a new champion and we’ll regroup and prepare well for next season. It wasn’t too long ago that we were very far from the leaders. Now we’re in a luxurious position after gaining a bit of ground, frankly we had not imagined [that we’d be this close]. We have the chance to prolong the competition.”

“Madrid have very few weak points”

Guardiola, on the type of game he anticipates from Real Madrid, believes that the team from the Spanish capital will come to the Camp Nou “to pressure and try to win the match.” He added: “they’ll take advantage of space when they get the chance, it’s one of their strongest virtues.” Guardiola went on to define the team led by Mourinho in the following way: “they always create danger, they are a very complete side. They dominate all aspects of the game - they have enormous power. Weak points, they have very few, because they have multiple ways of playing. They have an indecent amount of goals with five games remaining. We have to play our game, and that won’t be easy. We have to find the way to overcome them and score goals.”

When asked about the morale of his team after the defeat at Stamford Bridge, Guardiola said that “they will be fine on Saturday.” He added: “in their minds they know that only one thing matters, and that’s to win. I’ve always told them that the game they are about to play, is the game they have to go out and attack. Tomorrow we’ll try to do what has been habitual for us this whole time.”

On whether or not Alexis, who received a knock in London, will be available, Guardiola said that the player is “doubtful.”

With peace of mind

Whatever the result is, Guardiola said that his team “have fulfilled” expectations. “We have done a good job, and no one can hold anything against us. We’ve fulfilled our work dutifully. Whatever happens, we have already won, the people have once again enjoyed how we’ve played. The only thing that can be expected of us is to maintain the drive to fight until the end. That’s what we’re doing.”

The Barça manager also said that he wants to “win tomorrow and overturn the result against Chelsea. If we don’t do it we’ll be disappointed, but sports have shown me that winning isn’t everything. There are a lot of things that are more important. To the people that give it their all... seeing the trajectories of Rayo Vallecano or Levante, we can’t consider them losers. Their work has a lot of value. We should be very satisfied with how things were done these past years, of how well we’ve behaved.”

Morale boost ahead of the Champions League

Josep Guardiola believes that the team that wins tomorrow “will be reinforced ahead of next week’s Champions League round.” The manager is convinced that no matter what the result is, that after the match “we have to adapt to another decisive match and think about how we can attack and defend against Chelsea to get to the final.”