Guardiola: “Winning our remaining 11 matches is a 'titanic' job”

The Barça manager believes that it will be “very difficult” for Barça to catch a Real Madrid “that loses very few matches”.

Guardiola admitted that it’s “better to be 8 points behind instead of 10” but he’s clear that his team needs to focus “on competing well in our matches”.



Despite Real Madrid’s slip up that allowed Barça to come within eight points of the top, Josep Guardiola hasn’t changed his opinion from the last time he gave a press conference: “I haven’t changed my opinion from two days ago. It will be very difficult for this [overturning Madrid’s advantage] to happen.” The manager went on to say that Madrid is a very strong team that “loses very few matches.”

Guardiola reminded the packed press room that his team has a tough road ahead. He knows that his players will give everything they have in every game but “it will be difficult to win all 11 matches that we have left. It’s a ‘titanic’ job.” In fact, all of the teams that Barça is to face from now until the end of this season are playing for something, “there won’t be any meaningless matches.”

Despite the monumental task at hand, the Barça fans are hopeful for a La Liga title this season. “I’m delighted that they believe, because my opinion isn’t the standard. The supporters need to stick with the players. It would be a shame if they thought like me. The players are the ones with a monumental challenge.”

“It’s better to be 8 points behind instead of 10 but the only reality is that this Tuesday we have to compete again.” This is Guardiola’s mentality ahead of tomorrow’s match against Granada. He believes that his team needs to focus on itself and forget about what Madrid does. “We have to do what we have done up until now; win matches and compete well. We need to win our matches, we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks.” The Barça manager said that “the objective isn’t to focus on a comeback. If we were four or five points behind, sure, but not when we’re at a distance of eight.”

Guardiola praised Pedro for the good performance he put in against Sevilla. “Pedro needs to be the same player he was against Sevilla. Thanks to his effort, where he ran enough for three players, the other players were able to do what they did.” He added that the Spanish winger hasn’t been able to show his quality this year because “he’s been on the sidelines for a long time.” (via FCBarcelona.cat)