Manchester – His living team to fight another day, but Pep Guardiola is no doubt that whatever Friday draw in the Champions League for Manchester City, his team will be outsiders. Build the competition entirely? Right now, it goes beyond his imagination.
Savinho inspired a second half-time fight that saw City overcome the Brugge club and secure its place in direct elimination qualifiers, but a 22nd finish in the table at 36 teams has consequences. The draw on Friday in Nyon will confirm the identity of their opponents, but they will either be the holders of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Negotiate this and it would not become much easier, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid were waiting in the round of 16.
Against “two giants” of sport, City seems undernourished in their current form, which has seen them win only seven of their last 21 games in all competitions. Guardiola hopes that the return of several injured players will help the cause of his team. Currently, however, its evaluation is not confident.
“These are favorites, yes,” said Guardiola about his two possible opponents. “We have seen it this season, but I don’t know what’s going to happen in two weeks.”
When asked if he could imagine that City won the whole competition, Guardiola added: “At the moment, no. The year we have won, I always thought we were going to win the Champions League .
“Reality is reality. They have more experience than us. Madrid may have had trouble, but the last games are back in the results, the way they played. Bayern Munich has played a season Incredible.
“The locals said Bayern Munich, Madrid, it’s good, we’re going to prepare and be in good shape. We will try it and see what’s going on.”
City was undocumented wounded Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake on Wednesday, but was able to welcome John Stones in the departure XI for the third time since the end of October. Jeremy Doku was not available, but Guardiola’s initial assessment suggested that his absence would not be long while Oscar Bobb, for five months with a broken leg, could return for the visit to Arsenal.
The Guardiola team in the Champions League will swell more for the direct elimination scene, where he can record the Signatures of January Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis. The city will however be limited to three additions to their team, so that any other addition would somewhat complicate things. At full power, it could be a team to fear.
“I don’t know if they are happy to play against us,” said Guardiola. “This is what it is. Bayern and Madrid, we will face the kings of this competition and perhaps the second or the third king.
“What I want, what I want for the start of the season is to recover the team. I accept Rodri from the start but not the others. We play this competition with 1000 problems, against teams like Sporting, who we faced with Ruben Amorim when they were the best.
“If you had told me then that we would arrive in the last match against club Brugge with a chance to qualify, I would have registered. The team at that time was not as if we were, to participate At the biggest stages of the Champions League.
At halftime, worry about Madrid and Bayern Munich looked like a dream scenario for Guardiola, who joked that a fire in a commodity stands two hours before the game seems to offer a perfect metaphor For writers. The Miss of John Stones and Phil Foden at the start of the second half hinted a nervous road to come, but the cool head of Mateo Kovacic prevailed, the Croatian driving in the midfield and caressing the equalization house. From there, it was the Savinho Show, creating a movement that ended with its own goal before scoring the third of the city, but it was a quadruple winner of the Champions League that had turned the trend .
“Kova was there and he has experience and he has scored a fantastic goal,” said Guardiola. “I know Kova is able to break the lines in this way. It is something unique, something special. We have done so and now it’s time to enjoy it because it was a season Really, really difficult in the Champions League.
“It has been so unstable this season. Today is a feeling of relief to qualify.”
