Pep Guardiola laments David Villa injury ...

... after Barcelona's Club World Cup victory

The striker will miss the final after being stretchered off against Al Sadd, but the coach declined to comment on a possible replacement, and instead focused on Santos

Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola is looking forward to a Club World Cup final clash against Santos after his team eased past Al Sadd in the last four, but admitted that David Villa's injury is a tough blow to the Catalans.

 A comfortable 4-0 victory thanks to two goals from Adriano and strikes for Maxwell and Seydou Keita was marred by a serious injury to the former Valencia striker. 

Villa was stretchered off during the game, and the Catalans confirmed that he had broken his left tibia, and could be out for six months. 

Guardiola refused to speculate on how long his player would be away from the pitch, but did recognise that Barcelona would have to carry on without him in Sunday's final against Santos. 

"Villa is going back for an operation. Don't ask me about a replacement for that particular player, we will have to play without him to become champions of the world," the trainer told reporters in the post-match press conference. 

"We will try to our best in the circumstances we find ourselves, we would like to be world champions."

Barca already knew the identity of their final opponents after Santos' 3-1 victory over Kashiwa Reysol on Tuesday night. 

Guardiola affirmed that he was pleased to be facing the highly-rated Copa Libertadores champions for the right to be crowned world champions. 

"Santos have a great history, Pele used to play there and they have developed many wonderful players. They have great young players now, too, and are a very competitive club," he explained. 

"Their players are all talented and I am happy to be playing Santos, I could not watch their game live in the stadium but I saw a recording and I am looking forward to the game."

Barcelona lifted the Club World Cup in 2009, when a last-minute goal saw them overcome Argentine side Estudiantes. 

Source: goal.com