Guardiola Surrenders Liga despite Messi's 150th Strike
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola watched Lionel Messi register his 150th league goal in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Sevilla, but admitted that even the little master can't win La Liga this season.
"Forget the league, we are not going to win," said Guardiola, whose bitter rivals Real Madrid can restore their 10-point cushion against Malaga on Sunday.
"If this team has anything then it is that it competes, but there has been another side which has been better and achieved better results than us and there is no need to smooth over the fact."
Despite his black mood, Guardiola insisted that his team would keep going until the end.
"Players at Barcelona go out to win. We have a very difficult tie in the next round of the Champions League (against AC Milan) but we are not going to hold back in the league and rest players," he said.
Elsewhere, Rayo Vallecano moved within a point of the European places with a 3-0 victory over Real Betis.
The side from Madrid had the better of a hard fought first half between the two promoted teams and made the breakthrough after 50 minutes through a fine finish from Emiliano Armenteros with the outside of his boot.
Rayo continued to have the greater cutting edge and Diego Costa headed a second before Raul Tamudo secured the resounding victory in injury time.
Getafe put further distance between themselves and the drop zone as they bounced back from three straight defeats to beat second-from-bottom Sporting Gijon 2-0.
Rock-bottom Zaragoza were just minutes away from a much needed victory but Roversio equalized Helder Postiga's opener after 88 minutes to give Osasuna a 1-1 draw.
Source: Agence France Presse
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