I can handle final six months Pressure at Bayern - Guardiola

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola will draw on his
experience at Barcelona as he prepares for the final few
months of his time with the Bundesliga champions.

Guardiola is to leave Bayern at the end of the season –
stating his desire to work in the Premier League – and sees
his side begin the second half of their title defence against
Hamburg on Friday with an eight-point cushion.

With Bayern on course to win a fourth straight Bundesliga
crown, the remainder of Guardiola's tenure will be judged on whether he can claim the Champions League and, to a
lesser extent, the DFB-Pokal to match the treble of
predecessor Jupp Heynckes.

Ottmar Hitzfeld also guided Bayern to European success in
2001 and, amid talk of claiming three pieces of silverware
this term, Guardiola said: "I'm okay with that
pressure, perfectly fine.

"Maybe we will win the Champions League, but no matter
how the season ends Jupp Heynckes and Ottmar Hitzfeld
will always be more important for the club than I.

"They are German, they were here longer. I know the
pressure from my time in Barcelona and I can deal with it."

Bayern, who face Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions
League, suffered a surprise friendly defeat to Karlsruhe on
Saturday in preparation for their trip to Hamburg and will be
wary of repeating their losing return to league action from a
year ago.

In 2015, Bayern kicked off the Hinrunde with a 4-1 reversal
at Wolfsburg and Guardiola acknowledged his side's current
state remains something of an unknown.

"I do not know at what level my team is playing. We need
two or three games until I know that, even after the game in
Hamburg I will not know," he added.

"We have worked on our ability to press. Our style of play is,
for example, against Ingolstadt quite different to that against
Frankfurt. We must be able to deal with different situations.

"I would prefer it, of course, if both teams wanted to win and
it goes back and forth. But every coach has his players with
whom he must work.

"I hope the second half of this season will be as good as the
second half of last season, but instead with a full squad in
the decisive games."

Guardiola will be without long-term injury absentees Mario
Gotze and Franck Ribery, but David Alaba and Arjen Robben
are fit.