Guardiola hails young stars

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was delighted with the display from his young players in their 4-0 Champions League win over BATE Borisov.

Left-back Maxwell and goalkeeper Jose Pinto were the only players fielded on Tuesday that were not brought up in Barcelona’s renowned La Masia academy.

And in the absence of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Barcelona’s other stars, the likes of Thiago, his brother Rafinha, Jonathan dos Santos, Sergi Roberto, Pedro and Isaac Cuenca showed the club’s future was bright by putting on a glittering display at the Camp Nou.

“I told them that they went out and had fun, that they did a lot of things and weren’t scared,” Guardiola told Europapress.es.

“It’s important for us to see that they are capable of playing and to see that they are prepared for when we need them.”

“It’s not easy to put six or eight kids into the line up from the second team and play this well.”

Pedro grabbed two goals, while Roberto and Montoya both scored, with Guardiola resting his big guns due to the upcoming league fixture against Real Madrid and the fact Barcelona had already secured top spot in Group H.

However, the coach did not waste much time to stress the importance of the battle versus Jose Mourinho’s men, who sit three points ahead in the La Liga race, despite having played one less match.

“If they beat us, they would have more of an advantage, and to overcome (potentially) nine points against Real Madrid would be a lot to ask for,” Guardiola told Marca.com.

“Madrid are always strong. Tomorrow we will begin to think about them and prepare. They are always good, and this year too.”