MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that his ultimate success at the club will be judged by the UEFA Champions League.
The Spaniard has won the Premier League four times in the six seasons he has been in England with City but the Champions League has eluded him.
Guardiola led City to the final of the competition in 2021 where they narrowly lost 1-0 to Chelsea and they will host RB Leipzig tomorrow night for a place in this season’s quarter-finals.
“Yes. It doesn’t mean I agree with that but absolutely we will be judged by this competition,” Guardiola said today during his pre-match press when asked if he will be judged at Manchester City by the Champions League.
“From day one they ask me ‘are you here to win the Champions League’? I accept it. We’ve never won this competition but every time we are the main favourites.
“I didn’t know any team, any manager, any players that have played a competition and tried to not win.”
Guardiola, who won the Champions League in 2009 and 2011 when he was in charge of Barcelona, expects a tough time from Leipzig, who held his side to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Germany three weeks ago.
“I think it will be a good game because they have a fantastic team. When I was in [Bayern] Munich they were in the second division so I could not face them. Since then what they’ve done is really good,” he said.
Manchester City are still in the race for their third Premier League title in a row as they trail leaders Arsenal by five points with 11 games left in the campaign.
Guardiola however insists the Gunners have shown enough hunger this season to lead them to their first Premier League title since 2004.
He said: “They give you extra that gives you wins in 93rd [minute] and 98th [minute] so that is something that they have that we don’t have because we won it back-to-back two times.”
Comments are closed.