Pep Guardiola reminisces about how mean his Barcelona players were on the pitch

Ahead of Athletic Bilbao’s clash against Barcelona, former Blaugrana manager Pep Guardiola has reminisced about how mean his players were on the pitch nearly a decade ago.

The two sides squared off in the 2012 Copa Del Rey final when Guardiola was managing Barcelona in what turned out to be his final season at Camp Nou.

Blaugrana will hope to pick up their first piece of silverware under Ronald Koeman by winning the game, but that will be easier said than done as Athletic are still reeling from their loss to Real Sociedad and will want to make things right.

Barcelona, under Guardiola, had won an incredible 13 trophies before the Copa Del Rey win over Athletic Bilbao, and the Catalan has revealed that his players were a nice bunch off the pitch, but were a mean bunch on it.

"I remember when I went out on the pitch, I saw the tension of the Athletic Club players. The Barcelona players, on the other hand, seemed to be playing a friendly match. They were used to it, they knew they were going to win," Guardiola told TV3.

"I would tell you with total certainty that it was not like that [going easy in the second half]. Marcelo Bielsa's teams are educated in resilience and they never give up and those Barcelona players would score five goals if they could and if they could score eight goals they would."

"They were lovely people, but on the pitch those players were f***ing murderers."

Great story. Bielsa says he showed Guardiola his analysis after Bilbao lost to Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey final. "Guardiola had a look at it and he told me 'you know more about Barcelona than me'. But it was useless information because they scored three goals." #lufc

— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) January 16, 2019

Manchester City showing their ruthlessness under Pep Guardiola this season

Pep Guardiola has won everything barring the Champions League at Manchester City, but this could finally be their year.

The Premier League leaders beat Borussia Dortmund in both legs of their Champions League quarter-final and will hope to overcome last season’s finalists Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final.

🗣"I didn't win the Champions League with Barcelona, they won it."Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola's response to not winning the Champions League in 10 years pic.twitter.com/inrq5XWWxe

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 13, 2021

City are still playing for a quadruple this season, which would be a record-breaking achievement as no English team has won four trophies in a single season.

The Sky Blues seem to have a ruthless edge about them this season, something that was often seen in Guardiola’s Barcelona team of the last decade.