Guardiola: We defeated Juventus emotionally, not tactically

Mar 17, 2016 at 2:34 PM

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Guardiola: We defeated Juventus emotionally, not tactically

Just like Juventus fought back hard from 2-0 down to draw the first leg 2-2, Bayern Munich repeated the same trick and eventually emerged as the 4-2 winners in extra time and Guardiola believes his team was able to make the dramatic comeback with an emotional performance.

“The comeback was performed emotionally, not tactically,” Guardiola told after the thrilling last 16 tie.

“When you are 2-1 up at the Allianz Arena, the pressure builds. It’s tough. Franck Ribery and Kingsley Coman did well, then Douglas Costa is capable of dribbling and crossing, so he was important.

“This is football, one minute they say you’re world beaters, the next you’re a disaster. We kept our heads and at the 69th minute I did think we’d make it, but only if we got that first goal back.”

The game actually changed on its key substitutions, as Kingsley Coman helped Bayern to find a different dimension and Mario Mandzukic replaced man of the match Alvaro Morata.

“It was difficult for us to deal with Morata, but when Mandzukic came on we were able to control it better. He’s dangerous in the box, less so out of it.

“It takes more than 11 men to win a game. Alex Sandro was tired and Coman fresh with great pace. It’s not easy to overturn a 2-0 deficit against an Italian team, so we needed to show patience.

“We just have regrets for the way we started the match and hopefully we’ll learn from it for the quarter-finals.

“If you want to win the Champions League, you need to beat the big teams and Juventus really impressed me tonight.”

Pep Guardiola is renowned for his clinical, almost unrivalled, tactical brain. But he was out thought by Massimiliano Allegri for much of last night. Juventus played perfectly according to plan to counter the persistent threat of their hosts, with David Alaba particularly given a frustrated time by the effervescent Cuadrado. The Italians fully deserved their two-goal lead but Pep ultimately made decisive some changes from the bench – Thiago Alcantara and Kingsley Coman – to turn the dice and tie in his favour.

However, the decision to leave Coman on the bench seemed like quite the oversight when the dust had settled on a 4-2 victory. The Frenchman set one up and scored another after his 60th-minute introduction. Pep, as he tends to, got it right at the end.
However, Juventus director Beppe Marotta complained about the harsh refereeing, particularly Morata’s incorrectly disallowed goal.

“Juventus are too big a club to complain about this,” Guardiola reacted. “When you lose, you shake hands and go home. You compliment the opposition.

“They had chances and scored twice. Perhaps the goal was not offside, but these things happen in football.”

Meanwhile Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon insisted he is happy with his team’s performance.

The veteran shotstopper said he was really proud of his team, who he thinks will gain enough confidence from the latest performance.

“Football is made up of incidents. In the second half they played a very attacking game and converted their chances,” Buffon admitted.

“It’s disappointing to concede at the 90th minute, but I am proud of this team.

“This is a defeat that needs to make us realise we’ve climbed another step up the ladder compared to last season.

“We have gone out with our heads held high.”

It was really breathless from start to finish at Alianz Arena, but what a dramatic difference between the beginning and end of the last 16 tie. For the first hour, Juventus seemed flawless: they managed to run themselves into the ground, they forced mistakes from a solid Bayern squad and for all despite Bayern’s possession, the Italians created far better chances. The thing is, with the score at 2-0, they were not able to finish off Bayern. Morata and Cuadrado both missed golden chances. Juve however wrongly had a goal ruled out for offside. They would obviously pay for those mistakes.

 

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