Guardiola: “The line between winning and losing is thin, tonight is a good example of that"

The Barça manager said the play at the 15 minute mark where Valdés cleared a corner and saved, on two occasions, a goal was key in tonight’s result.

Guardiola was pleased with his team’s 1-4 victory at La Rosaleda and for the overall behavior displayed by his players. He highlighted that to do well in stadiums like La Rosaleda, “you must do things correctly”.

Furthermore, he lauded Leo Messi, who scored another hat-trick tonight, pointing out that the Argentinian’s biggest asset is “his consistency”.



After the clear victory over Málaga by 1-4, Josep Guardiola talked about a play in the first quarter of the game at La Rosaleda to illustrate the point that “the line between winning and losing is very thin, today is a clear example.” The Barça manager lauded Víctor Valdés: “if Víctos hadn’t cleared the corner or saved a goal-scoring chance on two occasions, I don’t know what would have happened.” With that said, the manager corrected some issues at half time, “we adjusted a couple of things and everything was more simple from that point on.”

Speaking on tonight’s opponents, Málaga CF, and the expectations surrounding the Andalusian side, the Barça manager said: “in sports the biggest difficulty is anticipating expectations. When you play in a big team the expectations are that you must always win by a large margin. Málaga have a fantastic manager that understands football, quality players, and young players with a lot of promise. The only thing needed is patience. They need their time and I’m sure Pellegrini will succeed, because he knows La Liga. He’ll achieve constancy, it’s always a bit difficult when you have a new team.”

Without a doubt, the man of the match was Leo Messi, who bagged three goals tonight: “you already know my opinion. His biggest asset his is constancy, to be important in every match for so long ... His life is football. Scoring these goals will help him in the upcoming matches.”

Lastly, Guardiola said that the team should celebrate because “they managed to win a game away from home with comfortability.” The manager went on to analyse the first half of La Liga: “We finished the first half of La Liga tonight. We have a rival that is sensational (Real Madrid), it takes away from what we’ve done. In general, we’ve comported ourselves well.” (via FCBarcelona.cat)