Post the training session at Camp Nou, Pep Guardiola sat down to address some of the many questions that the media had as his team host AC Milan in the second and decisive leg of the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Guardiola is looking forward to what will be certainly the best tie of the competition at this stage with both teams fighting out to make it into top four. I am “very excited with the prospect of staying in the Champions League,” said Guardiola. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that Barca has to win the match at Camp Nou. Guardiola is well aware of the situation but he senses that Milan will hit the back of the net.  ”We have to win the match,” said Guardiola. ”I perceive that Milan will score.  They have the capacity to do it.”

Match days are always nervy times for fans but Guardiola, if anything, is relishing the challenge that his team faces. “Situations like tomorrow’s make me very happy,” said Guardiola, whose side’s goalless draw at San Siro was seen as a victory for the Italian side by the media. ”We’ve played almost everything but these matches remind me of my first day. I feel lucky and privileged.”

That performance in Italy has been closely studied by Guardiola and his staff and this time around the 41-year-old Catalan wants to make sure that his team succeed in coverting the many chances. “In these last couple of days we’ve been working on the way to create as many goalscoring opportunities as possible in order to score as many goals as possible,”said Guardiola. ”Milan is comfortable playing with a 0-0. We need to play with a lot of intensity and find the best way to attack them. We aren’t able to defend a result for a long time. We have to find the way to attack their extremely strong defence, I have faith that we’ll find a way through.”

Guardiola was rather forthcoming with his strategy this time. He said that what will matter in the match is “Barça’s positional play and creating imbalance in certain areas of the field. We have to play on the wings, we can do it with static players and with attacking players. We will need to impose intensity on the ball and move them round as much as possible, circulating the ball rapidly. I think we will have possession of the ball but we have to find the way to create chances. I think they could score more than one goal, so we have to find the way to score more.”

Highlighting the opponent’s strength and the threat they pose, Guardiola said, “Milan is a team with the capacity to dominate matches. When they play games where they are the ones being dominated, they defend really well in their area and they are very strong on the counter. They can send us out of the competition. They’re leaders of the Italian League and they have fantastic players.”

On AC Milan’s star striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he said, “When he receives balls in the air, he’s superior to us. We consider it a lost play. We need a ladder to stop a player like Zlatan Ibrahimović because he’s so tall. If it’s a high ball we know it’s for Ibrahimović because of his height. We’ll try to stop him from participating in the match and force him to play as far away from our area as possible.”

When asked about his own star striker, Lionel Messi’s lack of goals against Italian teams, Guardiola said, “If you say that Messi doesn’t score much against Italian teams, then you know what happens: he will score lots. Messi can’t beat a defence made up of eight or nine players by himself. We have to work as a team. But don’t joke about Messi, don’t provoke him.”

Asked about his formation, Guardiola said, “It’s tough to play with three at the back, I will think about that. It depends on the players and their feedback. I will see tomorrow.” About the absence of Xavi in the last two training sessions, Guardiola said that the player has “improved with his calf injury” and that it will be decided tomorrow if he’s fit to play. Added Guardiola, “We have included him because we hope he can play. No one wants to miss these kinds of games, Xavi least of all.”

Irrespective of who makes the starting XI, Guardiola’s agenda is set: “We will try to find the best way to attack them and generate many chances from minute one. We have to play intensely, move as fast as possible and into good positions, that’s vital tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens. The team will go out onto the pitch with 11 players and they’ll give it their all, don’t doubt that.”

Guardiola wanted the press gathered to be aware of Barca’s fine run in the European competition in the past few years. “Our success is that we’re fighting to be in our fifth consecutive Champions League semifinal. It shows that we’ve done a good job. I’m very proud.”

Source: www.uefa.com, www.fcbarcelona.com, The Guardian; Image credit: REUTERS/Albert Gea