BAYERN MUNICH COACH Pep Guardiola says no defence in the world is capable of stopping Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.
Guardiola is set for an emotional return to Camp Nou for Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg. The 44-year-old spent 11 years as a player at Barca, before returning as coach where he oversaw one of the greatest eras of success in the club’s history — between 2008 and 2012.
During his four-year spell in the dugout, Barca won La Liga three times, and the UEFA Champions League and Copa del Rey on two occasions.
Argentina international Messi was the driving force behind that team, but this time he will provide a headache for Guardiola who is attempting to mastermind a way past Luis Enrique’s side.
“If Messi is in top form, no defence can stop him,” Guardiola said. “There is no system to stop Messi. He’s too good. You just have to try to limit him in another way — stop the ball reaching him, but even then, you can’t stop him.”
Guardiola also stated that there is far more for Bayern, who decimated Barca at the same stage in the 2012-13 season, to worry about than just Messi.
“It’s very difficult to find any weaknesses with talent like this,” he added. “We’re going to try to perform as well as we can. We’re going to try to better than we usually are. You know the level of respect I have for these players and for Barcelona.
“I think that they have the advantage because I know them, but when you think you might know what these players are going to do they do something different. I know that from a defensive standpoint it’s really impossible to stop them. We can’t stop them.”
Egg chasing is so fecking boring. Who likes this rubbish bar a few wasps ??
Ah Ed, surely you can do better than that. That line has been used over and over again by many different trolls. Be a bit original please.
So why bother watching ir commenting?
His Ashton style diving could have cost his team the game. He could easily have made some yards towards the posts for both his tries and given his kicker a much better chance of nailing the conversion. Awesome step and acceleration for that second try though.
Thought the exact same thing. Talented but classless.
It’s just silly. You get your biggest lad to come crash into us then we do the same with our biggest lad. Backward and archaic with little or no skill involved. Guess that’s why it’s mainly a colonial game with little worldwide appeal
Most games are silly and most world wide games are English imported to keep stupid natives distracted while they raped and pillaged their lands. Distracted by playing, watching or commenting on the stupid games. Damn those tricky Brits
Ed what’s ur sport of choice?
Not many comments on your article. Wonder why?
Not many comments on any of the articles on TheScore.ie. Ever since they split the sections into different apps, people don’t seem to bother switching between them.
Coz the Rugby crowd is out on the town