Diplomatic Guardiola keeps it real

Pep Guardiola believes there are more important things than Barcelona’s forthcoming El Clasico encounter with Real Madrid.

Ahead of his side’s Champions League meeting with BATE Borisov on Tuesday, Barca manager Guardiola said the public should be more concerned about the outcome of French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy and German leader Angela Merkel’s proposal to salvage the currency than the outcome of the La Liga match at Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

“The most important thing comes on December 9; (Angela) Merkel and (Nicolas) Sarkozy saving the euro, not El Clasico,” Guardiola said on Monday.

“The pressure is that people (are forced to) live each day during this crisis. We are not pretentious, we have to win every day. We’re a big club and that is what is asked of us.”

Guardiola did move his attentions to Barca’s Group H fixture against the Belarusian champions, which will conclude their group stage campaign.

Having already won the group, Guardiola said the match at Camp Nou should be a good workout for some of the more peripheral figures in his squad.

“(Our youngsters) are talented players and it is good to see them play. We will help develop them the best we possibly can,” he said.

“I hope they are daring to run, try hard, and play without fearing what I think. My opinion of them will not change, regardless of if they play well or badly.”

But despite the likely changes, forward Pedro emphasised how important Barca were taking the match: “This is an important game for us. We have the chance of getting a good result here at home,” he said.

“This will really help us to gain even more confidence and to have an even better rhythm as a team. Clearly this was help us to prepare even better for the game against Real Madrid. So as I have said, this will be an important game for us and hopefully we can gain a victory at home.”