Guardiola: Barcelona will batter Bayern if we just chase goals

The coach – who suffered a fourth straight loss for the first time in his coaching career on Saturday – pleaded with his players to focus on more than just scoring


Pep Guardiola has warned that Bayern Munich will get hammered by Barcelona if they only focus on scoring goals on Tuesday – the same way they were by Real Madrid last season.

Guardiola took the Bavarians to the Champions League semi-finals in 2013-14 and, after losing the first leg 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu, watched from the sidelines as his charges were mauled 4-0 in an Allianz Arena embarrassment.

Bayern are in an even worse predicament this year, having been beaten 3-0 by Barca last week at Camp Nou, but Guardiola has called on his players to concentrate on playing good football rather than reducing the goal deficit.

“If we only focus on scoring on Tuesday, we will lose in the same way we did in last year’s semi-final decider to Madrid,” the ex-Barca boss told reporters. “We have to stay calm, play our own game and see what happens.”

Bayern had to play 77 minutes against Augsburg on Saturday with 10 men due to Pepe Reina’s red card early on at the Allianz Arena, with Raul Bobadilla punishing the Bundesliga champions by scoring the only goal of the game in a shock 1-0 win.

Guardiola acknowledged that being a man down for most of the match took its toll on his side while pointing the finger of blame at his injury list containing star forwards Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.

“Bayern have no wingers left who can attack on the flanks,” the Spaniard, who had never before lost four consecutive matches as a coach, added. “We’re reliant on our full-backs to attack down those avenues.

“It wasn’t easy to play for 80 minutes with 10 men, especially after that 3-0 loss at Barcelona. I’m actually very proud of the players.”

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