Guardiola: Stage set for cup showdown

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola refused to be dragged into the argument surrounding Mario Balotelli’s alleged stamp on Scott Parker.

Guardiola said the controversy must be dealt with by the English authorities and Manchester City to deal with, and not his business.

“It’s not our business – it’s the clubs business and the people. I know the rules all around the world are different,” he said.

“So the rules in England are different. We saw what happened with Liverpool, with many cases in history.”

“But it’s different here so we have to take care of our business and our situations.”

Guardiola was speaking ahead of the second leg of his side’s Copa Del Rey game against their fierce rivals Real Madrid.

Barca, the European champions, lead 2-1 heading into Wednesday’s contest at the Nou Camp and Guardiola is confident his side can progress to the final.

Guardiola is also confident that Barca’s fans will behave, with tensions between the sides running high following a fiery first leg.

He does not believe there will be a repeat of the infamous scenes which saw Barca fans throw a pig’s head at former Real Madrid player Luis Figo in 2002.

“We have to play against them right now – we have to get ready for this game,” he said.

“We had a good result in the first game and we have to play the second game.”

“When you play against Real Madrid, no matter what result you get, you have to get ready to play again. And we’re going to do it tomorrow.”

“I think that we will still conduct ourselves in the way a team should. What happened that time can happen once in our lives.”

“But the Cules (name for Barca fans) are still full of regret over that incident. I think we learned from that and it will never be repeated again.”

“And should it happen, then I think I will feel more hurt by that than by being knocked out of the cup.”

“But I keep insisting that tomorrow the fans won’t forget that they have come to the stadium to watch us play. They have come to watch a show.”

“They have come to share and take part in a spectacle with us.”