Guardiola: "We didn’t lament when we were down to 10 men, we worked harder”

The Barça manager said that victory against Mallorca was a tremendously important win, especially seeing how the team reacted after Thiago was sent off on 56 minutes.

“The attitude displayed by this team makes me proud,” said the manager.



Josep Guardiola was pleased with his team’s victory in Mallorca (0-2). The manager said that this win will help “prepare the right tone” for Barça ahead of the Champions League match this Wednesday against AC Milan. “Despite everything, with our effort and not complaining, we came out ahead and we won,” said the manager. He was also pleased with the team’s attitude after Thiago was shown a red card: “we didn’t complain when we were down to 10 men, we worked harder.”

The Barça boss highlighted the level of sacrifice shown by the players in his team: “we have players with the ability to help the team. Not for their good, but for others. We’re very fortunate that we have these players with us.”

The manager then went on to praise the attitude shown by the team throughout the competition: “we have always had a hard time. In these last four years, where we’ve won almost everything, we’ve been exemplary. At the beginning, the season seems very long and you let yourself go a bit, and our opponents aren’t forgiving. We’re at the end now and we know it. You can’t measure effort, we either all work for the same goal or we won’t make it. The players have put in a tremendous amount of effort."

Barça was reduced to 10 men at the beginning of the second half when Thiago was shown his second yellow card. Guardiola said: “we have about 70% to 75% of possession in almost every game. Of every 10 minutes, we have the ball for 7. But we’re the most penalized, sometimes it’s hard to understand. If someone is ejected from a game for any reason, we have to accept it - and we do and we keep on playing.”

Lastly, Josep Guardiola talked about the recent decisions made by the Competition Committee and the Referee Technical Committee, saying that “they need to demand respect.” He added: “it’s been a while now that the committees haven’t demanded respect. We’re at a point where everything is too suspicious. There are too many things that they’ve let pass, and in the end they haven’t made themselves respected. Gerard [Piqué], with what he said, probably deserved a ban. But they don’t do it, of course, because if there’s another player that says that his team was robbed, they’d have to ban him too. This has been going on for a while, and they [the committees] urgently need to reestablish respect.” (via FCBarcelona.com)