La Liga rivals rally their troops

Posted Sunday, February 26, 2012 by ESPN

Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have sounded their respective battle cries as Barcelona and Real Madrid prepare for a pivotal round of La Liga games on Sunday.

Guardiola's Barcelona are currently trailing Mourinho's Madrid by 10 points and the Spaniard knows that time is running out for his charges to mount an unlikely comeback.

With both sides playing on Sunday - Barca are away to Atletico Madrid while Real travel to Rayo Vallecano - Guardiola sees this as the perfect time for his team to keep their focus on their own performances and not get bogged down by events that are out of their control.

Keeping this sort of one-track focus for the remainder of the season, for Guardiola, will be key to the Catalan side's attempt at overhauling Madrid's comfortable La Liga lead.

"When a team is 10 points behind the leaders the mindset isn't to mount a comeback," Guardiola told the club's website.

"Our plan is to be calm and try to win the match [with Atletico]. We can't focus on anything else.

"In this house there is always pressure but they [they players] know that they can't give up. The Liga is complicated, we have to take it a game at a time."

Guardiola warned his players that Atletico under new manager Diego Simeone will provide a tough test.

"Simeone has changed the dynamic [of the team].

"It's obvious that the team has the manager's mark."

Meanwhile, Mourinho has also instructed his players to not get distracted by all the recent media praise. The Portuguese tactician has reminded the team that as long as he is manager, the objective of the team will be to win trophies and will not be about simply breaking records.

"We're not looking to break any records," Mourinho told the club's website.

"Our objective is to win the championship. We're not obsessed about records. What matters to us is winning our games and scoring one goal more than our opponents. We've managed to do so thus far impressively."

Mourinho insists his side will maintain this philosophy ahead of Sunday's trip to Rayo Vallecano.

"My team is my first concern, followed by the opponent and then everything else. We will fight to the end in every match to win the league and I believe we could see a great game [on Sunday].

"I expect to face a difficult opponent in a complicated game. I can't predict how Rayo will play. I believe they have an offensive style, but they play slightly differently at home than on the road."

Angel Di Maria will miss the game as he has been ruled out for a month with a muscular problem while striker Karim Benzema has been sidelined for two weeks.