Guardiola Wants Barcelona To Secure Top Spot

Although Barcelona have already qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League, they still have to fend off Sporting Clube when both sides go face to face tonight in a direct battle for Group C supremacy.

The Blaugrana only lead their Portuguese rivals by a single point but a victory for Pep Guardiola’s men at the Estádio José Alvalade will all but confirm top spot with one more game to go.

“If we play well against Sporting we will have the option to finish first in the group,” Guardiola mentioned during the pre-game press call.

“I never enter a game thinking it does not have any importance. Never. I repeat that our intention is to come here and play a good game of football and we will try to win it,” he added.

Guardiola, however, refused to demand a victory from his players against Sporting, but he stressed the need for the team to show a good attitude on the pitch.

“Whether we win or lose will depend on how well we play and that will determine if we will finish first or second in the group.

“I want to see positive things from my players again. I want them to be ambitious, to attack the opposing goal and to score. I want to see all that from the team,” he emphasized.

The former Barça midfielder was then asked to comment on the hotly debated phenomenon of ‘Messidependencia’, the claims that the Blaugrana depend far too much on their star player, Lionel Messi.

“With Andrés (Iniesta) and Leo, we are definitely stronger but if he (Messi) was all-important to the team, we would not have allowed him to go to the Olympic Games.

“Is he an important player? Yes. Is he decisive? Yes. Everyone in the squad knows that and so does he. But he also knows that he cannot play all the time and we cannot win every time.

“Throughout the season, there will be many injuries and it is necessary to protect him,” Guardiola concluded.

KS Leong