Pep Guardiola: Winning the Bundesliga is the most important title

With his club on their to winning their second UEFA Champions League trophy in three seasons, Pep Guardiola had a big league match coming up on the schedule. For a club like FC Barcelona with grand, global ambitions that surpass the borders of Spain, one can understand if the club is focused on the European cup when they're heading into the second leg of a tie.

However, in speaking with the media, Guardiola let it be known which title he thought was the most important. "La Liga is the most important competition of the year," he said. "The Champions League has glamour, but the league is better for me, it makes me more excited."

Four years later, with a different team, the thought remains the same. (watch Pep's press conference)

"When you fail to win the Bundesliga championship for two years in succession and then you finally win it again, everybody is happy. However, in the past years, Bayern Munich won the treble with Jupp Heynckes, and last year, we won four titles with two of them being the big and important ones in the Bundesliga and the Cup. So, I understand when people now say, 'Winning the Bundesliga isn't enough anymore.', but I can only repeat that for me, winning the Bundesliga is the most important title. For me as a coach, it's a great and memorable season if you win the league championship. That is my opinion, even though that doesn't mean that I don't feel any pressure.

I know how important the Champions League is for this club. What I want is to play well and improve the way the team plays every day. If you win a game you're happy for a day or two, but if you play well, you know you're coming closer to achieving your big goals. My job and my goal is to make the team play better every day. I have to make the team feel comfortable and full of confidence going into the important games of the season, so that we can play well and, of course, preferably win.

To win the Champions League, it's more about the form that you're in on that specific day. That is what's most important in the Champions League, to be ready when it counts. In the Bundesliga, you play every day. But, I don't know now what kind of form my team will be in when we play Shakhtar Donetsk in the Round of 16, for instance, or when we possibly play in the quarter or semi finals."