Guardiola shrugs off Man City defeats, hails Barca academy

Manchester City went another game without a win in pre-season after losing on penalties to Barcelona after a 2-2 draw. The Sky Blues improved somewhat on their defeats to Celtic (3-4) and Milan (2-3), but have yet to celebrate a victory in the build-up to the new campaign.
Pep Guardiola shrugged off the disappointment after his side's defeat and stressed that the most important thing is to return injury-free for the start of the new season. "This is about team building, coming back together and without injuries and then we'll see what happens," he said.
The coach explained why he had used a large number of young players: "We’re blessed to have these players. It’s nice because the other young players look up to senior players. It’s nice to see them, I didn’t know them quite well but in training we can find them," Guardiola added.
"The game was fantastic, we had a lot of chances, I don't know how many shots we took. I think our boys ended up happy too," explained Guardiola, who did not miss the opportunity to talk about the virtues of some of his former team: "I liked them (Barca's youngsters) very much. Their positional play was extraordinary."