Berdyev applauds rugged Rubin display

Home coach Kurban Berdyev applauded FC Rubin Kazan's "noble achievement" in holding FC Barcelona to a draw for the second season in succession, with Josep Guardiola regretting that his side did not make the best use of their possession in the UEFA Champions League Group D encounter.

Kurban Berdyev, Rubin coach
There is no doubt that taking a point against Barcelona is a noble achievement. I am grateful to the boys who outdid themselves. There were moments when they had their backs to the wall but they did the job.

Why did I not play Carlos Eduardo and Alan Kasaev? Well, Eduardo is not yet familiar with the movement which we need in defence. Any shift we make in that regard which is not sharp enough could have serious consequences, so we decided not to take the risk. We needed to be perfectly organised.

The race is still on; it's too early to talk about our chances of qualifying. Barcelona are one of the favourites and so of course one place in the knockout round is reserved for them, but there will be three teams fighting for the one remaining spot.

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach
We did everything we could to win but it's never easy to break through against these kind of opponents. Given the amount of possession we had, I think we could have created more danger but I don't think we deserve any criticism. The only hint of disappointment was that we didn't convert more of our chances but that's all part of the game and I'm not worried about that.

We were trailing against a team with nine or ten players in their own area but at least we knew how to attack against that tactic. [Lionel] Messi made a big effort in order to get back to fitness and he'll continue to improve but he's still not feeling 100%. European competition is extremely demanding and our group is very strong so it will take a lot of work right to the end to qualify.