Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola was pleased with his side’s free-flowing display during the 2-1 La Liga win over Real Sociedad on Saturday.
The 40-year-old Guardiola selected an experimental line-up against the Basque club, which included the youthful talents of Cristian Tello, Isaac Cuenca and Jonathan dos Santos, and the Catalan manager was only too happy to speak proudly of his proteges, who he feels contributed remarkably well.
“We could have drawn today, but we have generated a lot of play and we have again become masters of the beautiful game, creating many chances. We have played another very good game,” Guardiola said.
“Cristian (Tello) is a winger, a bullet. He is very fast and does well in one-on-one situations. He’s a very young kid that will eventually mature, but so far he has done very well.”
“Congratulations must also go to Isaac (Cuenca) and (Jonathan) dos Santos for the big game performance they put on, because it is not easy to perform as they did.”
However, Guardiola was less enamoured with Barca’s failure to turn their overriding possession into more goals,
The manager also feared Sergio Busquets’ suspected knee injury could be a serious one.
“Tonight we could have scored four goals, as we had four good chances to score four goals,” he said.
“When Cesc had his hands on his head I thought he (Busquets) had broke something, but it appears to be only a deep cut, so we will have to see his condition by Wednesday.”
Barcelona remain seven points behind La Liga leaders Real Madrid, in second place, and will now divert their attentions to Wednesday’s Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Valencia.
