Barcelona coach Guardiola loses cool in Copenhagen
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Barcelona's normally mild-mannered coach Pep Guardiola had an extremely uncharacteristic loss of cool after his side was held to a 1-1 draw by FC Copenhagen in Champions League Group D on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old argued with his counterpart Stale Solbakken on the touchline after the whistle and slammed the Norwegian in his post-match news conference and television interviews.
"Ask him (Solbakken) what happened. He knows how to manipulate the media very well," Guardiola told Spanish television when quizzed about the touchline incident. "I think he has behaved very badly in this situation."
The dispute goes back to Barca's 2-0 win over the Danish champion in the Catalan capital last month, when goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto tricked Copenhagen player Cesar Santin into believing he was offside.
Copenhagen made a formal complaint to European soccer's governing body UEFA over the incident and Pinto was banned for two matches.
Guardiola took exception to comments from Solbakken on Monday suggesting Pinto's punishment was not harsh enough.
"What he cannot do is ask for a four-match ban for Pinto and say that Pinto is a bad apple," Guardiola said.
"Pinto is a player who goes in for fair play and he's an important part of our dressing room," the former Barca player said. "I don't think a coach should do something like that."
Solbakken, speaking to Spanish TV, said the club had reported the Pinto incident to UEFA to try to protect Santin and put the dispute with Guardiola down to a misunderstanding.
"I don't care if Pinto is sitting on the bench or on the sofa at home," the 42-year-old said.
"We wanted to protect Cesar because he looked stupid and had a bad time after that.
"After we had shaken hands he started to say something about UEFA and I think he meant the whistling incident," he told a news conference.
"I said that he (Pinto) should have got five games. That was just a bad Norwegian joke.
"Maybe he doesn't understand Norwegian humor. I'll have to take that on me. I really respect Guardiola. He's one of the finest coaches but I think he was told something wrong."
Lionel Messi opened the scoring for the Spanish champion in the 31st minute when he latched on to a loose ball in the box and volleyed in.
It was Messi's 15th goal in 13 matches this season and his 32nd career goal in European competitions, putting him above Rivaldo as Barcelona's record scorer in Europe.
But Copenhagen equalized less than a minute later. Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes fumbled Jesper Gronkjaer's cross from the left and Claudemir was on hand to volley in at the far post and send the home crowd wild.
Barcelona almost won the match in injury time when substitute Pedro cut in from the left and curled a shot with his right foot that rebounded back off the inside of the far post.
"We played an extraordinary first half," said Guardiola. "It's a shame that after we went up they got theirs so quickly. It was a very intense, tough game."
Barcelona fielded a full-strength team, including forwards Messi and David Villa, midfield conductors Xavi and Andres Iniesta, and a central defensive pairing of Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique.
But it was Copenhagen which set the tone for an intense match early on, with Barcelona's captain Puyol flattened by a trailing arm in the first minute and Claudemir smashing a shot against the post in the third.
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