Barca’s Guardiola congratulates Inter after semi-final exit

(GSM) – Barcelona boss Josep Guardiola has congratulated Internazionale but noted that the dismissal of Thiago Motta actually worked against his side as they were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League at the semi-final stage.

Despite the 1-0 win Barca were held by Inter who won the first leg at the San Siro: 3-1.

“I am grateful for the pride of belonging to this club and to have this support. I feel bad for not getting to [the final in] Madrid. We’ve tried and I’m proud of it. We have to apologise. We can only congratulate Inter,” Guardiola told a press conference after the game.

“We tried to open the field and disrupt the one-on-one and build from crosses and rebounds, but we gave away many free kicks. We lacked continuity in the game and, through mistakes or whatever we failed to disrupt their one-on-one approach.

“When a team defends with nine it’s not easy to get through. We tried inside and outside, but attack is always the hardest and the goal came too late.”

The Catalan coach admitted that his players are disappointed but must try to refocus on the league after the setback.

“They are not very good. We have had a good Champions League and it’s a success to reach the semi-finals. We’ll try again next year. We have to recover in three days to go for the league. We have to get up. ”

“The dismissal has influenced the game, because they sat back. [Diego] Milito and [Samuel] Eto’o have moved to the wings. They set up a defensive line of almost six. After considerable delay in getting frees we have had great game and a few times, but we’ve played fifteen games now playing every three or four days.”

Guardiola refused to criticise the tactics of opposite number Jose Mourinho, stating that the winner is always right in their approach.

“Every team, every coach plays the way they want. I cannot judge the opponent. The winner is the one that is right. We went to Milan to play well and we could not for many reasons. We never gave up hope. Sometimes attacking is much more difficult than defending,” he added.

“I’m not disappointed with my players and don’t think we’re victims of our own success. We have reached the semi-finals in the Champions League and we have 87 points in the league, where we only lost one game.

We know winning and losing, because this club has lost much more than they won. And we have shown how to behave in victory and defeat.”

Finally, when asked who he would be supporting in May’s final at the Santiago Bernabeu Guardiola had this to say:

“I will be on vacation at this time.”