Monday, January 3, 2011

Guardiola lavishes praise on Xavi


Coach Pep Guardiola lavished praise on Xavi Hernandez who made his 549th appearance for Barcelona against Levante.

The manager was proud of Xavi, who matched Catalan legend Migueli's record.

Speaking to as.com, Guardiola said: "This game belongs to Xavi. I reached 300 matches and that seemed an outrage.

"Migueli played 549 and retired at 38. But Xavi is 30 years of age and has played 549 games...Xavi will surpass Migueli, I would not be surprised if he managed to reach 700 games."

Guardiola also gave an insight to his squad's preparations against Levante, who they defeated 2-1: "We always treat the opponent with the utmost respect.

"We knew that Levante were going to be difficult to break down, because they would want to react to their 8-0 loss at the Bernabeu. They changed to a 4-5-1 formation, and played disciplined.

"It was a difficult game to come back to after the holidays. At 2-1 they tried to turn our win into a draw. We did not play badly, but it was a warning.

The manager also gave kudos to Pedro, who scored both goals in their victory.

"Pedro is very important. He is in the form of his life and does almost everything brilliantly, he is a very fine player. When he is near the area he is like Messi, in that he only sees the goal. But he works very hard for the team as well," continued the Blaugrana boss.

The 23-year-old has scored 20 goals in 59 appearances for Barcelona.


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