Thursday, April 1, 2010

Guardiola & Laporta react to draw

Barcelona's coach Josep Guardiola, rued their missed opportunities
last night at the Emirates, and he told Barca's official website that
next week the Gunners might attempt to reverse his team's away-goal
advantage at Camp Nou.

He expressed satisfaction at the way his team played yesterday against
a very good team like Arsenal. The ex Barca player opinionated that
his team won't contemplate the idea of commiting any blunder inside
their own backyard [Camp Nou] next week: "We are happy to have come
here, and show the English what we can do. Last year, we won
everything but we did not play away like we did today (yesterday). We
stopped them from showing their best qualities because we kept hold of
the ball. We have shown the World what we can do, although we still
have to prove ourselves by qualifying."

Joan Laporta: [President of Barcelona] maintained that he was
contented with the draw, despite admitting annoyance at the ease at
which they surrendered their two goal lead: "
Our draw at the Emirates stadium is a good result and as for the
return leg at Camp Nou, it is nice that the glass is half full."

The president added: "Everybody had a good game. But perhaps we lacked
the defination to sentence them." He refused to comment on any
refereeing issue and merely replied "that his focus was on the return
leg and how they will be starting with an advantage."
But he is sorry that the game at the Camp Nou will be missed by Puyol,
Pique and Cesc. "It is a shame, I'd have liked all of them to be
there," he concluded.