Manchester United kick-off their Champions League campaign with a home game against Rangers on Tuesday night – click here for big match odds.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola admits his side were below par in their shock 2-0 home defeat to Hercules.

The newly-promoted Primera Liga outfit caused a major surprise at Camp Nou on Saturday as Paraguay forward Nelson Haedo Valdez scored twice on his debut.

“I congratulate Hercules,” said Guardiola. “They came here and played well. They made it difficult for us and they got their reward.

“We lacked our usual fluidity. There are so many details we can improve on. We’ll have a look at it and try to overcome it.

“We have overcome so many things since I’ve been here and we will again.”

Guardiola chose to rest several of his first-choice players on Saturday with one eye on Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Panathinaikos.

“I picked a team to win the game,” he continued. “These are all Barca players and they are all top-level footballers.

“It was a good enough team, but we lacked fluidity.”

While acknowledging that match was not ideal preparation for the Champions League tie, Guardiola refused to make excuses for the defeat.

“Ideally you would want the players to travel in Europe, not to South America and other places, but these things are beyond our control,” he said.

“I don’t know if it was a question of tiredness. There was no talk of physical problems when we beat Racing Santander 3-0 or when we beat Sevilla 4-0 in the Supercopa.

“We still created enough chances to win the game. Today we didn’t take our chances, but we had a lot of opportunities.”

The coach remains upbeat ahead of Tuesday’s European clash, adding: “It’s another big match and we’ll have to pick ourselves up like we have done before – there is no need for alarm.”

Manchester United kick-off their Champions League campaign with a home game against Rangers on Tuesday night – click here for big match odds.

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