Guardiola: “It's a painful loss”

The manager is aware that the race for La Liga is a bit more complicated after the defeat in Pamplona, he added that the team “must do their best” until the end of the season. Guardiola believes that “if we were playing well in the second half on this pitch we could have done the same in the first”.



After losing to Osasuna, Pep Guardiola said that “distancing ourselves from Madrid is painful ... the reality is that we were already at an important distance and I imagine it will increase [tomorrow].” However, this team never gives up and neither does its coach. “We have to keep on going until the end,” said Guardiola, “we don’t really have many perspectives to work from, we can only play the next game as best we can to do well.”

Guardiola was pleased with his team’s attitude in the second half where they fought until the last minute of the game to take away a point from the Reyno de Navarra: “Osasuna were better in the first half. We played a great second half, anything could have happened.” After the match, the Barça manager said that he’s shifting his focus to the Champions League tie against Bayer Leverkusen: “we’ll go to Europe to defend our title. We played a second half that shows us the way to defend a Champions League.”

Guardiola admitted that in the first half “Osasuna started off and adapted to the pitch conditions better than we did.” However, after his team produced a better showing in the second half, where the pitch wasn’t as influential on Barça’s play, the manager said, “if we were playing well in the second half on this pitch we could have done the same in the first.”(via FCBarcelona.cat)