Guardiola, proud of players “eternal, legendary, unrepeatable and honest”

Vanessa Forns

After working hard to win the club’s tenth Spanish Supercup, Guardiola bestowed nothing but praise on his amazing players

Bartomeu: “An important title to start the season”

The vice president for the sports area was very pleased with the first title of the season and the tenth Supercup in club history. “The first title after a game of maximum rivalry is a very important one to start the season”, said Josep Maria Bartomeu. 

He was also delighted with Cesc’s first game in a Barça shirt: “Truth is, he showed what a good player he is and what qualities he has”. After saying that the club will try to play the Gamper match anyway, despite the AFE strike, Bartomeu said he was sorry with the way the game ended: “It is a shame these things happened. The pictures speak for themselves.” 

Like he did after the win at the Bernabéu, the Barcelona manager congratulated his players on their huge effort in beating Real Madrid to win the Spanish Supercup at the Camp Nou. “They made an enormous effort. They showed what they are like: eternal, legendary, unrepeatable and honest, people who like to train and `play football... Honestly, looking at how they responded, it is a privilege and an honour to be their manager”, he said. 

Surprise 
Guardiola went on to say that “I want to congratulate them for the mentality they have shown, their character, for playing the way they did, because it is never easy to play against a team like Real Madrid in sush intense games.” After pointing out how important the result in the away leg was (2-2), he said that “they still need to get some kilometres under their legs, continuity. I sincerely didn’t think we’d be able to win. It is a nice surprise to win this title.” 

On the incidents at the end of the match, Guardiola said “we came to a situation at the end that we have taken badly … The pictures speak for themselves. They think we are always diving, and we think the opposite. I have model players, both on the pitch and in press conferences. We shall just carry on playing football and we shall be as quiet as we can. We are a team that wants to play football as well as possible.” 

On Wednesday, Guardiola equalled the eleven titles won by Johan Cruyff. He doesn’t think that statistic matters, for “I didn’t win them alone, and what Johan did for this club cannot be matched however many titles we win in the future. What we have to do is maintain this competitiveness”.