Guardiola expecting Inter to be tougher than Arsenal

Having seen his team create a plethora of chances in destroying Arsenal in the previous round, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola insists his team won’t have things so easy against Inter Milan.

The Italian champions host the holders in the Champions League semi-final, first leg at the San Siro here on Tuesday with many still purring over the Catalans’ sumptuous play against Arsene Wenger’s Londoners.

Barcelona produced a first half of mesmeric proportions in north London but still came away with only a 2-2 draw.

Yet in the return leg Argentina star Lionel Messi produced a majestic performance to score all four goals in a 4-1 dismantling of the Gunners.

But Guardiola believes this test will be much more difficult.

“We played very well in the last two games against Arsenal and we’ll try to maintain that level,” he said.

“I’d like to create the same number of chances we did against Arsneal but I don’t think we will because Inter are so competitive, from the coach (Jose Mourinho) right through to the players.

“We’re not the only team playing, there are the others too and sometimes they play well.

“Tomorrow we’re playing a team like Inter who are four or five times champions of Italy.

“They strike fear into their opponents and are competitive in all competitions.

“We always try to play well but sometimes we manage it and sometimes we don’t.

“Sometimes we don’t get so many opportunities because the other team plays well.”

The two sides have already met in the group stages back in November with the game here finishing 0-0 and the Catalans triumphing 2-0 in Camp Nou with a totally dominant performance.

But Guardiola says nothing should be read into those matches.

“November is a long time ago and so much has happened since then, they’ve got a lot more confidence so it doesn’t have much affect,” he said.

“They’re a very strong team and we’ll need to play well twice. We’ll play our game and try to score as many goals as possible.

“But we could lose because we’re playing against one of the best teams in Europe who have played a perfect Champions League because they’ve won their last four matches (five, in fact).”

Guardiola may have won an incredible treble in his first season as Barca boss but he still has a lot of respect for Mourinho, whose trophy cabinet is bulging in comparison.

“Mourinho won in England, he won in Portugal and he’s won in Italy. If he’s not the best coach in the world then he’s certainly one of the best and it’s a real honour to be up against him.

“There’s no way of knowing what system he will pick. Mourinho is a very intelligent coach who is always full of surprises.

“We will have to try to work out his gameplan in the first five minutes but they can play well on the counter, they’ve got great players up front, they’re very good.”

Barca endured a nightmare journey just to arrive in Milan, travelling the 1,000km by bus and stopping overnight in Cannes, but Guardiola insisted they will not be making any excuses.

“It’s not an ideal situation playing a Champions League game after 14 hours in a bus but it’s the volcano, you can’t do anything about it,” he added.

“We could have stayed at home and lost the match 3-0 but we wanted to play and we took the bus and wanted to do it in the most comfotable way so we took two buses.

“Of course it’s not easy coming by bus but they do it every day in the second and third divisions.”