Football : Attacking football came out on top, says Guardiola

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola praised his team for reaching the Champions League final and believes it is a victory for their style of attacking football against bitter rivals Real Madrid. The Catalan side came through with a 3-1 aggregate victory after two stormy matches.

It was always going to be an extremely difficult task for Real to turn around their 2-0 defeat at home but they started with the intention to attack. It was in the second half when they looked most dangerous, though, that Barca went ahead through Pedro Rodriguez. Real kept going and equalised through Marcelo but it was only a consolation.

"Football is coming home and I would like to congratulate my players for reaching the final," said Guardiola, who was a player in the 1992 side which won Barca's first ever European Cup at the legendary Wembley stadium.

"Of course it is the new Wembley and so it is not going to be as special going back there. It is a chance for us to show our way of football, to keep hold of the ball and move it around as quickly as possible."

Barca could now play Manchester United who hold a 2-0 lead over Schalke going into their return leg and it would be a repeat of the 2009 final. "We will be watching the game tomorrow (Wednesday) but it looks like it will be Manchester who go through.

"Manchester continue to be in the final stages of the competitions and reach the final. But we have the same desire, we will look to find their weak point and then attack," explained Guardiola.

The Barca trainer refused to comment on the contentious decision by the referee to rule out a goal for Real's Gonzalo Higuain due to a supposed foul by Cristiano Ronaldo.

"Everyone is free to think what they want and analyse it. You cannot say one person is right or another. We feel like we have eliminated an excellent side and one of the keys to our success is our humility. The players keep going and working hard," he added.

Real Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka remained adamant that the contest was decided in the first leg by the dismissal of Pepe.