Guardiola delighted with Barcelona victory
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Your support makes all the difference.Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola was full of praise for his players after they thumped Sevilla 4-0 in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup to secure the trophy with a 5-3 aggregate triumph.
Having been beaten 3-1 in the first leg, Barca turned the tie around in the Camp Nou thanks to an own goal and a Lionel Messi hat-trick.
Guardiola told his club's official website: "We did the right thing by not allowing Sevilla to play, but the most important thing was to win this game and reinforce our spirits.
"The players are physically and mentally strong and very intelligent. What was even more important was the way we played and each one made themselves available.
"We are very pleased to have won the first trophy of the year. I think that Sevilla did not have a shot and the team's effort deserves merit.
"If we have won it is because we played well. Sevilla are never weak and are a great team with a great coach.
"The thing is that we have played well and generated a performance that made things difficult for our opponents."
Meanwhile Sevilla head coach Antonio Alvarez accepted that his team had been well beaten, adding: "We were not lazy, it was just that Barcelona's squad is of a much higher standard than ours.
"We did not do well enough in the first 30 minutes. Barcelona are an attacking team that is also very good at defending - Guardiola showed us the world champions."
Palermo’s young Argentinian midfielder Javier Pastore has played down talk of him being poised to join Spanish giants Real Madrid.
The 21-year-old has been mentioned as a possible transfer target for Real’s new head coach Jose Mourinho, but Pastore is content with his current club for the time being.
He told Il Corriere dello Sport: “It's nice to know you are wanted by great clubs. I know that this season there will be talk about the market again.
“But I will only consider it when (president) Maurizio Zamparini or my agent tell me there is a real opportunity to move on.
“I don't think about it, I have a contract with Palermo until 2014.”
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