Guardiola revels in CWC victory

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was thrilled with his side’s 4-0 win over Santos in the Club World Cup final in Yokohama on Sunday.

The La Liga champions cruised to a comfortable victory at the Nissan Stadium thanks to a brace from Lionel Messi and goals from Xavi and Cesc Fabregas, helping the Spanish giants to the world title.

“The first half was excellent. We played like great artists. My players could do what they envisioned, and the result showed it. Leo (Messi) was perfect,” Guardiola said.

“Still we must improve and get even better. We return to Catalunya and we’ll try to win more. Right now all we are focusing upon are the next titles. I am very happy to coach these guys and I am honoured to coach these great players.”

“We are confident for the future. It will be a surprise for me if my team now give up. They want to keep going, move on forward. We want to continue to play good football and want to show we are top level.”

Guardiola admitted he is unsure if his current side are the best Barcelona outfit ever and compared his team to the Netherlands squad that impressed in the 1970s with their ‘total football’.

“I don’t know if this is the best Barcelona ever. During the process of coming this far the former generation worked very hard, so it is an accumulation of history. The next generation might exceed our results, but this might be the task for somebody else,” he said.

“I don’t know if our total football is better than that of Holland, there is a gap. Sometimes we’re compared to Ajax and we’re honoured. They won a lot and are a legendary team.”

Santos counterpart Muricy Ramalho claimed it was nearly impossible to beat Barcelona in the wake of their loss on Sunday.

“We don’t feel defeated, overall. There is no shame in losing to Barcelona,” he said.

“Their quality makes the difference in football. We tried to stop Barcelona’s players, but it was hard. I don’t think anybody can beat them.”

“I have learned a lot from this game. It is very hard to talk about beating Barcelona now. They have played many teams in the world and they usually beat all of them. It is almost impossible to defeat them.”

“Still our dream of beating Barcelona continues. I told my players: ‘Let’s come back next year’. We need big goals and need to keep dreaming. We need to be humble, but we also need to keep our dreams alive.”