Dani Alves on 2011 Champions League final: The former Barcelona defender credited Pep Guardiola for the win against Manchester United.
Barcelona’s team in the Guardiola era (2008-2012) is widely regarded as one of the strongest teams in footballing history. Pep Guardiola led the Catalan side to 14 major titles in four years, which included three La Liga titles, and two Champions League trophies.
Under Pep Guardiola, Barcelona completed a historic treble in the 2010/11 season, when the side won La Liga, Champions League and Supercopa de Espana titles.
The Catalan giants defeated Manchester United 3-1 in the final of the Champions League at the Wembley Stadium, which was their second win against the side in two years in the final of the tournament. Earlier, Guardiola’s Barca beat Sir Alex’s side in the 2008/09 final 2-0.
Dani Alves has now opened up on never-revealed-before stories about the famous final at the Wembley, where Manchester United were thoroughly outplayed.
Dani Alves on 2011 Champions League final:
In an exclusive interview with SPORTbible, the former Barcelona defender stated that the win in the Champions League was all due to Guardiola.
“Look, I am going to tell you something firsthand, because I think it had never been spoken before: Guardiola won the 2011 Champions League for us, not the other way around,” Dani Alves began.
“Because we had made an agreement: us, the players, we would win the Spanish League for him and he would win the Champions for us.”
Dani Alves stated that Guardiola studied the opponent well, and talked about a unique quality of English teams.
“He studied the opponent, he told us everything that was going to happen in the match… everything! No matter what could happen during the match, it was not going to be a surprise for us.
“He said something very interesting: the score can be 5-0 for us, but the English team will play as it was 5-0 for them, because that is simply how they face the game, how they feel about it.”
The defender also insisted that Guardiola urged them to continue with their style, even if Manchester United level up the scoreline, which they did.
“If they level the match, don’t change the way of playing, because that is the only way we will be able to win,” Alves recalls Guardiola saying to the dressing room.
“And then we scored, United leveled the match… You see, everything that was happening during the match was not a surprise for us. And when they scored, the game restarted, and we were playing the same way, as it had just started, keeping possession, the control of the game.
“He even told us: “I warned you this could happen!”, obviously because of the opponent’s quality. But we made the opponent get psychologically tired by not letting them touch the ball, dominating the whole game, in that style of play that for a lot of people is boring but for us was a lot of fun, because the other team doesn’t get the ball.”
