Guardiola: “Our fans cannot let us down on Tuesday”

The Barça manager urged Barça fans and members to attend the match at the Camp Nou on Tuesday and help the team qualify for the semifinals

Guardiola is clear that to be Champions League winners against that the team must “overcome thousands of things, and do an even better job [than last year]”

The fact that Milan is satisfied with a goalless draw is the “highest form of praise” for Guardiola

Josep Guardiola urged FC Barcelona fans and members to attend next week’s Champions League showdown with AC Milan: “Our fans cannot let us down on Tuesday. They need to come to the stadium and carry us to the semi-finals. These players have done too much to be abandoned. This Tuesday we have a final in our stadium with our people. We need the Camp Nou to be full. We have a chance to go through and between us all I believe it’s possible.”

The Barça manager considers that Milan’s satisfaction with a goalless draw at the Giuseppe Meazza is “the biggest of compliments,” although he warned that the return match at the Camp Nou “will be terrible” and that “there’s no room to speculate.” Guardiola continued: “A tie is never finished off in the away leg. However, keeping the condition of the pitch in mind, shooting 17 times is meritorious. Milan have seven European Cups, and we went toe to toe with them.”

“It will be a terrible match” 

Referring to the last match between the two sides in the Group Stage, which ended in a two-all draw, Guardiola is clear that “in the world of football, whatever happened before doesn’t matter.” He added: “We know that it will be a terrible match. Milan have very talented players and they they defend well. This is why our fans need to cheer us on more than ever. We only have one option, and that’s to win - between all of us we won’t fail.”

On the condition of the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza, Guardiola said that his players deserve a lot of credit “playing football or, at the very least, trying.” The manager said “something needs to be done. In the end we adapt to everything, we come and we play. But it’s clearly a problem for the show. It’s also true that to be champions you have to overcome every challenge. We’ve done it in the past and we’ll keep on doing it.”

Guardiola, who refused to talk about the referee, said that “everything is difficult. We’ve won a lot of things, we’ve drawn and we’ve lost. In the latter two we’ve never talked about the referees. To be Champions of Europe again we must do an even better job.”