Guardiola: "It will not be decisive"

Roger Bogunyà

Josep Guardiola is looking forward to an exciting encounter with Real Madrid on Monday evening as he predicted that el clásico will not be a decisive match in what will be a long season.

FC Barcelona trained at Camp Nou 24 hours before the big game and then the Blaugrana coach gave his views to the media. “I hope it will be a fantastic game,” he said. “Madrid are not just spectacular, they are also physical, effective, quick and direct while remaining well organized and very strong. It is very difficult to avoid over-excitement with Madrid coming here. That is normal. This will not be decisive though, but whoever does win will surely be considered to be the champions for the next week at least.”

Going forward

The Barça coach then stated that he always sends his team out with the aim of going forward. “They know how we play,” he commented. “The game is predictable in that sense. There will be no surprises, we will go out to attack.” When asked how he expects Madrid to play, Guardiola added: “I know how they will play. They counter-attack very well.”

Les pressure

Not being such clear favourites as in previous seasons suits Guardiola perfectly for the first clásico of the season. "This year we have a slight advantage, we will not win 5-0 before even playing," he continued. "Here it was probably seen as a fact that we would win and that type of thing can be complicated."

Different games

José Mourinho led Inter to a two-legged victory over Barça last term, but Guardiola does not think that means anything. "They have different players to Inter," he explained. "The way of playing like last year is there, if slightly less so, because each coach has something of his own."