Despite a heavy defeat against Inter on Tuesday, Barcelona's players are confident they can overturn the 3-1 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal.
Jose Mourinho's team inflicted Barcelona's biggest loss under Pep Guardiola at the San Siro, with Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito all scoring for the hosts after Pedro Rodriguez put the visitors ahead in the 19th minute.
Since Guardiola took the helm at the Catalan club, the team had never lost by more than a one-goal margin. In the coach's second season in charge, Barca has now lost twice in the Champions League, once in the Spanish league and once in the Copa del Rey.
"It wasn't the result we wanted but we have home advantage in the second leg and can win the tie - we've done it before," said midfielder Sergio Busquets. "We had the control and the possession but they carried a threat on the break."
Busquet's assessment is backed up by the statistics, which show his team had two-thirds of possession, yet struggled to create serious scoring chances.
Pedro was equally bullish about next week's return leg.
"We have to stay cool and concentrate on what will be a very tough second leg," he said. "We have to come back from this, motivation won't be a problem, and with our fans behind us I think we can do it."
But Inter -and Spanish league rival Real Madrid - will be encouraged by Barcelona's form in recent days. On Saturday, cross-city rival Espanyol held the defending champion to a 0-0 draw in the league, allowing Madrid to close the gap atop the standings to one point. In that game the European champions looked blunt in attack, as they did against Inter. In both games, Lionel Messi - who has been in superb form in the second half of the season - was muted, as was playmaker Xavi Hernandez.
Barcelona's preparation was not ideal, with a 450-mile bus trip to Milan due to air travel disruptions. Pedro insisted that tiredness was "no excuse."
Last season, Guardiola managed to galvanize his tired players to European, league and Copa del Rey titles.
However, with this season's final five league games to be played in quick succession, and captain Carles Puyol suspended for the semifinal second leg, Barcelona's squad now faces as testing a month as any under Guardiola's record-breaking leadership.
