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Pep Guardiola highlighted the reasons for Real Madrid’s 4-0 loss to Barcelona in March, saying that Karim Benzema’s absence and tactical experiments by Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti played a big role in the defeat.
After Benzema’s absence through injury, Ancelotti chose to start Luka Modric as a fake nine striker, while Toni Kroos was also positioned at the top of the field to put pressure on the Barcelona defenders.
Guardiola told the press when asked if he could use that match to find holes in Real Madrid’s defense: “I only saw the highlights, I didn’t see the whole match in detail. I know Carlo did something he wouldn’t normally do tactically. I can’t take anything from that to help us in this match.”
The Spaniard continued to give his assessment on Carlo Ancelotti, as Real Madrid sealed the La Liga title with four games remaining. “Congratulations to him for winning the La Liga, you did it [with Barcelona], and he did it last week,” Guardiola said.
He added, “I admire him, he’s been all over the world, coaching great teams. He’s always incredibly tough, the football he’s playing is really good. Part of that is that he is an exceptional person. I met him years ago and every time I meet him, he’s calm and totally in control of his emotions.”
Guardiola is known to rotate his players well and field players who make up a versatile attack on the pitch. But he refused to give up anything before the match.
Guardiola said: “I don’t know what will happen. Choice is to try to win the game. There are moments when you train really poorly before a match and you do exceptionally well or you train well and perform poorly. There are teams that we did well against and [there are] things that have to improve.”
Modric indicated that Real Madrid would reach the final if he was at his best, and Guardiola was asked to give his views on the Croatian’s comments.
Guardiola said: “All the teams think that if they play their best they will beat their opponent, that’s normal.”
source: marca
