Guardiola eyes last-16 berth

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is eyeing a place in the Champions League last 16, but knows his men will have to be resolute against Viktoria Plzen.

Guardiola will be taking his 200th game in charge of Barcelona and he wants to mark the occasion with a victory.

However, he expects the Czech side to put on a hard-fought display on the pitch in Prague.

“A win would mean a place in the round of 16 and we would have nothing to worry about until February,” Guardiola said.

“It would also mean the pressure would be off when we visit Milan [on matchday five] so we could give some other players a chance to impress and focus for a while on the league and the Copa del Rey.”

However, despite his forward vision, Guardiola knows navigating their way past Plzen will likely be tough, despite beating them 2-0 at Camp Nou.

“[Plzen] are a strong, fast team; they defended very well against us,” he said.

“It is easier once you have played against each other, but our most important task is to adapt our tactics to how Plzen defend.”

Guardiola continued: “I know it will be my 200th match in charge of this great team.”

“I did not expect to be Barcelona coach for such a long time.”

“Not everything has been perfect during these four years, but we have won lots of trophies together, and that speaks for itself.”

“I am proud of the players I have and I think we have achieved good results together.”

“They constantly improve and they push me forward as well. They have made me a better coach.”

Meanwhile Viktoria Plzen coach Pavel Vrba has backed his players to come good as they try to lift themselves off the bottom of Group H.

“What would be a good result for us? We want to get at least a point. We have a good home record. We want to win at home, although we are aware that in this case it will be extremely hard,” he said.

“However, we want to show more than we did in Barcelona where we did not manage a single attempt on goal.”

“We must play aggressively, although we cannot play open football against them.”

“I would be happy if we reproduced some of the good moments from our recent league matches. We want to please a full house in Prague.”

“It will be a very special night for all of us to host such a great team.”

“I’ve showed the players our game in Barcelona and the things we did well, and the those that we could have done better.”

Plzen have just one point from three games so far.

A loss will see hopes of making the next round end.