Rosell: “I’m proud of the attitude of the players, the coaches and the fans”

The Barça President expressed his regret at the defeat but also his pride at the attitude of the players and the fans who: “gave a message of maturity tonight”.

As to Guardiola’s future, the President declared: “we are still confident of renewing his contract . I’m sure that if he’s made his mind up, he’ll let us know when he thinks it’s best”.

Sandro Rosell spoke to reporters just after the defeat to Chelsea and declared: “it’s a real blow. I want to congratulate Chelsea. This hasn’t been a good week for the Club members, but we’ve given a message of maturity tonight. We showed ourselves to be a civilised crowd, who supported the players and the coaches at all times. We lost and that’s part of the game, but we couldn’t ask for any more from the players. I am proud of them and the coaching staff, but especially of the fans who have shown that they are the best in the world”.

Rosell continued: “the team has shown character and a desire to win the tie. It’s a game and tonight we didn’t have the luck we needed. We had many more chances than they did, but they beat us”. The President had earlier gone down to the changing rooms to speak to the players: “I wanted to shake their hands and congratulate them on their attitude and the great image they showed the whole world. I guess that like all Barça fans I was confident we would get through, but when we got into the last quarter of an hour, you could see it was really hard for us - the ball just didn’t want to go in, we’ve simply got to accept that”.

Rosell was asked about Leo Messi and he was quick to make it clear that: “Messi has already given us so much – there’s no more to say. He’s still the best player in the world and we are very lucky to have him here with us. He was unlucky with the penalty. Our opponents know he’s the best and they put two or three players onto him”.

Guardiola announced that he would be meeting with Rosell to clarify his future and the President reiterated the board’s desire for him to continue at the Club: “we are still confident of renewing his contract . I’m sure that if he’s made his mind up, he’ll let us know when he thinks it’s best. We are all confident that the group will stay together and that next year we’ll be in with a good chance again to win all the competitions at this stage of the season. Right now, we need to deal with the defeat – there will be time to talk about the future”. (via FCBarcelona.com)