Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says his players must on Tuesday avoid falling into the trap of trying to avenge last year’s UEFA Champions League semi-final defeat to Real Madrid.
“It will be a huge mistake to think we are here for revenge; we are not! We must face it as another opportunity (to reach the final),” Guardiola told a news conference later on Monday.
Both teams will meet on Tuesday at the same tournament stage, with Manchester City away in the first leg in Madrid.
Guardiola was visibly upset with a comment by his midfielder Rodri earlier in their press conference at Santiago Bernabeu earlier on Monday.
He said he looked forward to “a chance for revenge” against Real Madrid.
“We are here to get a good result because everything will be decided in Manchester, not here,” he said.
“What happened last season happened, period. This is another opportunity, nothing more.”
“The best lesson we can take from last season is that we are not coming here for revenge but for a good result. And to have the final open for Manchester.”
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti spoke earlier on Monday about the importance of going into the second leg with a mental edge.
Asked about the comments, Guardiola was once again uneasy, disagreeing with his opposite number.
“Last year, we got here with a huge mental edge after winning well (in) the first leg. But look what happened,” Guardiola said.
“Ferland Mendy saved a ball off the goal line, and what happened still happened. Those are the details that take you to a final or not.”
After beating Real Madrid 4-3 in a thriller in the first leg last year in Manchester, Manchester City saw the Spanish giants fight back from the brink of elimination.
They beat them 3-1 after extra time to get to the final.
“When I arrived at Manchester City, I thought I would win the Champions League in the first year, then in the next one… and the one after that.
“And the last one, the same thing. That’s my mentality. And here we are, we are here to try again,” Guardiola said.
Manchester City footballer, Benjamin Mendy has arrived at Chester Crown Court today for the second week of his rape trial.
The French footballer, 28, denies eight counts of rape against five women, one count of sexual assault, and one count of attempted rape.
The offences are alleged to have taken place on five different occasions at his Cheshire mansion between October 2018 and August last year.
Last week, one of his alleged victims said she was left feeling like she ‘didn’t want to be here anymore’ after allegedly being raped by Mendy.
Mendy’s co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 41, from Eccles, Salford, has also pleaded not guilty to eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault, relating to eight women.
Prosecutors allege Mendy, a French international, is a ‘predator’ who ‘turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game’.
None of the women involved can be identified and reporting restrictions apply ahead of the trial.
Manchester City broke the English football record for consecutive wins by a top-flight club by beating Swansea 3-1 on Wednesday to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals. Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus were on target for the visitors, who extended their winning run in all competitions to 15 games. Victory was also Pep Guardiola’s 200th in 268 games as City boss, with the Premier League leaders still on course for a historic quadruple of trophies. Guardiola’s men hold a five-point lead with a game in hand at the top of the Premier League, face Tottenham in the League Cup final in April and resume their challenge to win a first Champions League in the last 16 against Borussia Monchengladbach later this month. “It is amazing for ourselves, we cannot deny how pleased and proud we are to break this record,” said Guardiola. “Records are there to be broken, but they have to do well (to beat it). “It is not easy in the modern era to make 15 wins in a row.” Despite the congested schedule, Guardiola characteristically named a strong side for the trip to south Wales with Sterling, Rodrigo, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan retaining their places from Sunday’s 4-1 win away to Liverpool. Walker has lost his place as first choice right-back due to Joao Cancelo’s excellent form.
The England defender took his chance to impress with a rare goal to open the scoring on 30 minutes when his tantalising cross avoided everyone in the middle and nestled in the bottom corner. City quickly turned their complete control of the game into a commanding lead inside the first five minutes of the second half. Firstly, Rodrigo released Sterling to slot home his 11th goal of the season with a calm finish.
Jesus then controlled and slammed home Silva’s header back across goal, allowing Guardiola to replace Sterling, Silva and Gundogan early with an eye to Tottenham’s visit to the Etihad on Saturday. But Rodrigo hobbled off with an ankle injury 20 minutes from time that will concern the City boss. Morgan Whittaker pulled a goal back for the Swans 13 minutes from time, but Steve Cooper’s men can now fully concentrate on their quest to gain promotion to the Premier League for the rest of the season.
Man City were understood to be the frontrunners to sign Lionel Messi last summer as he demanded to leave Barcelona during a bitter contract dispute, which culminated with the 33-year-old reluctantly staying put at the Nou Camp; His wages and age are said to be a concern for City
Manchester City have ended their pursuit of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, according to Spanish football expert Semra Hunter.
City were understood to be the frontrunners to sign Messi last summer as he demanded to leave Barcelona during a bitter contract dispute, which culminated with the 33-year-old reluctantly staying put at the Nou Camp.
Messi is out of contract at the end of the season, making him free to negotiate with other clubs from January and appearing to make a reunion with former manager Pep Guardiola all the more likely.
However, the Premier League club are no longer keen to sign the six-time Ballon d’Or winner, says Hunter, with his age and €100m-a-year wages (£89m) thought to be a deal breaker for City.
“I have it on good authority from someone close to the situation that Manchester City are not going to bid for Lionel Messi,” Hunter told Sky Sports News. “Based on the information I have, as of today, that door is closed.
“They have their reasons for this. They have two reasons for this: age and finances. Talking about age, he is heading into the twilight years of his career and you’ll be bringing on board a Messi that is different to what we’ve seen for the last 17 years with Barcelona. Even he himself has said that he is getting closer to the dreaded r-word of retirement more so than anyone cares to admit.
“That goes hand-in-hand with finances because even though he would be able to join for free, his wages are astronomically high – he is earning about 100m euros-a-year. That would be a huge financial burden for any club to take on, especially given the fact that we are in the middle of a global pandemic.
“Economically, everyone has taken a hit and clubs are not immune from this either. We’ve seen in the transfer window over the past summer that clubs are changing their strategies. Some of them, like Real Madrid, didn’t even buy a single player, most of them are trying to sell, some of them are trying to bide their time and wait so they can make bigger transfers some time down the road. And 100m euros is a huge stress from a wage-bill point of view.
“Either you have to offload some of the highest earners or you have to sell off players or make other tweaks in other parts of the club depending on whatever formula a club would want to use to bring Messi on board.
“Perhaps, clubs would rather invest that money into bringing younger players in or bringing in reinforcements in positions where they actually need those reinforcements.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he wants to see Lionel Messi finish his career at Barcelona because of his own strong bond with the Spanish club.
“Leo Messi is a player for Barcelona and if you’re asking me for my opinion, I am a person who has a huge gratitude to Barcelona for what they did for me as a player, they gave me absolutely everything, from the start, from my time in the academy,” he said.
“So I want him to finish his career there. That is what I want. As a Barcelona fan, I would like for Leo to finish there.
“But this year he finishes his contract and after that, we don’t know what will happen and what is in his mind.”
The Catalan is closing in on a decade since he last lifted Europe’s biggest trophy after a run of disappointing exits during his time at the Etihad.
If Pep Guardiola is actually going to be the manager to finally end Manchester City’s wait to win the Champions League, then he has certainly given himself a little extra breathing space.
As the most successful coach in City’s history having collected six trophies in four seasons, Guardiola is assured of his legendary status at the club.
A European triumph, though, would only further strengthen his legacy as well as his reputation as the greatest coach of his generation.
But, with the extra opportunities comes extra pressure.
This year’s final at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul will come 10 years and one day after Guardiola last won the trophy back when he was with Barcelona.
Domestic dominance with Bayern Munich, where he won three Bundesliga titles and two DFB-Pokals in his three years at the Allianz Arena, was not enough to prevent some in Germany from writing off his time there as being underwhelming.
Seven attempts at trying to win the Champions League with City will now bring an added risk of a similar judgment to his time in England.
They have, however, become regulars in Europe’s most prestigious tournament over the past decade, and following heavy investment in the first-team squad, one semi-final in nine successive seasons in the Champions League is a disappointing return.
Paris Saint-Germain have had a similar financial backing, which resulted in them reaching last season’s final. Premier League rivals Tottenham, meanwhile, managed to find their own route to the showpiece in 2018-19 despite not having had anywhere near the same amount of money spent on them when compared to City.
To their credit, City have competently got to grips with qualifying from the group stage of the competition without too many issues, and have reached the knockout stages in their last seven attempts.
This season is no exception, with three victories from their opening three matches ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Olympiacos putting Guardiola’s side on schedule for another early qualification and the opportunity to put all their focus on addressing their disappointing Premier League start.
It is when they get beyond the group stage that the problems have started.
Guardiola has never gone beyond the quarter-final stage with City and faced regular accusations that he overthinks the big matches, with the club having won just three of their seven knockout ties under the Catalan’s tutelage.
Of the successes, two came when they were overwhelming favourites against Swiss champions Basel and German club Schalke, with the other – against Real Madrid last season – the only time they have beaten an established European giant.
Twice, eliminations have come against English rivals – Liverpool and Spurs – when City would later be crowned Premier League champions.
The others were a last-16 defeat to an exciting, Kylian Mbappe-inspired Monaco side in Guardiola’s first campaign and last summer’s shock exit to fellow French side Lyon in a one-off encounter.
And while much of the focus will be on trying to wrestle back the Premier League title this term, the Champions League remains the most sought-after prize among City’s hierarchy.
In signing Guardiola up for a further two years, they believe they have the best coach available to deliver that dream.
The Argentine striker is due to become a free agent next summer, but his manager says a renewal “depends on his physical condition”
Pep Guardiola has addressed Sergio Aguero’s contract situation at Manchester City, while admitting the Blues “miss him a lot” when he’s not fit to play.
Aguero has just entered the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium, having spent the last nine years of his career in Manchester.
The 32-year-old has hit 255 goals in 373 appearances for City during that time, becoming their all-time record scorer in the process, but injuries have often held him back from making an even greater contribution.
The Argentine made his return to action after four months out with a knee issue against Arsenal on October 17, and he netted his 40th Champions League goal four days later in a 3-1 win over Porto.
Aguero retained a spot in Guardiola’s starting XI for a clash with West Ham at the weekend, but extended his scoring drought in the Premier League to eight games as City were held to a 1-1 draw, while also picking up a fresh knock.
The City boss was also asked whether or not City have opened talks with Aguero over a contract renewal, but he refused to be drawn on his future before expressing his frustration over the striker’s ongoing fitness problems.
“I don’t know, I don’t want to talk about it because I am not involved with this,” Guardiola told a pre-match press conference.
“If I should be involved in contracts, maybe the day should be 48 hours, not 24! What I want is for Sergio to be fit, what I want is Sergio [to] come back again, be ready as much as possible.
“We miss him a lot. What he has done for this club is outstanding, [he] will be a legend of this club, we want to enjoy him before but it depends on his physicality and his physical condition.”
After their latest European outing, City will start preparing for a must-win encounter away at Sheffield United on Saturday.
Guardiola’s men have slipped to 13th in the Premier League standings after five fixtures, but do have a game in hand on current league leaders Everton, who have 13 points to their name.
The Catalan coach says that sides without continental commitments are in a far better position to prepare themselves for domestic games
Pep Guardiola believes Premier League teams with no European commitments have a “huge advantage” this season as Manchester City prepare to face in-form West Ham.
City sit 11th in the table heading into the weekend, with seven points from four games but, having played one fewer match than most, it can be regarded as a false position.
Wins in the last week over Arsenal and Porto have given the impression that City have settled following a rocky start to the campaign.
However, in West Ham they face a team who have hit a startling run of form, following up a 4-0 home win against Wolves by beating Leicester City 3-0 and drawing 3-3 at Tottenham thanks to a sensational late comeback.
Results that would have felt outlandish in any other season are becoming commonplace, with behind-closed-doors football in the time of the pandemic dancing to an unfamiliar beat.
“It’s why this league was always so difficult and everyone can lose everywhere,” said Guardiola, assessing the strains on the teams with European commitments.
“It’s for this reason, some guys have seven or eight days to prepare, a huge advantage for the other team. We can adjust, accept, handle the situation if you are a player or manager.
“All the teams playing in Europe have the same problem. The schedule is crazy for everyone. For three, four games in a row maybe I decide to use the same squad and other ones I make changes.”
As to whether the fixture congestion, among other factors, could lead to the most open title race in recent times, Guardiola was keen to stress it was too soon to make such a call.
“I don’t know. It’s too early to know,” he said. “It looks like it because there are results not expected, but the situation we are in around the world – not just in this training centre, in our normal lives – is taking an influence in the game. We’ve played four, five games, it’s not much.”
He pointed to his team and Liverpool dominating recent seasons, but suggested that has been out of keeping with the normal scheme of things, saying: “I think before I came here, the Premier League is the most open league in the world, many teams can win it.”
Speaking in a pre-match news conference on Friday, less than 24 hours before his side were due to take to the field at West Ham, Guardiola admitted he was yet to decide on his starting XI.
Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte could be in the frame to return from injury but Guardiola has had a long list of recent casualties and would only go as far as to say that “some of them will be involved, some of them won’t”.
The London Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for City in recent seasons, with five successive wins having come by an aggregate of 22-1, West Ham shipping at least four goals in every game.
Such numbers illustrate the progress City have made, given they only scored 22 goals in their last 20 visits to West Ham’s previous ground, Upton Park.
But Guardiola knows his team’s heady run of high-scoring trips to east London could be halted this weekend. For the first time since West Ham beat City 1-0 in March 2009, the London side head into the game higher up the table than their Mancunian opponents.
“The past is the past. We’ve had good results but it’s the past,” Guardiola said. “They played really well against Tottenham – not just the last minute or the second half; they played with a lot of personality. They are in good form, in a good moment for them.”
A quirk of West Ham’s recent run of form is that their results so far correspond to the last time, back in 1928, that they scored three or more goals in four consecutive league games.
West Ham are up to three in a row now – with a 4-0 home win, 3-0 away win and 3-3 away draw – and that is exactly how their 1928 run progressed, with the fourth match in the sequence being a 4-1 home victory.
The Belgium international pulled out of their Nations League squad and Pep Guardiola has confirmed he will miss the clash on Saturday
Kevin De Bruyne is set to miss the “next games” for Manchester City, but Sergio Aguero is in contention to face Arsenal on Saturday.
De Bruyne withdrew from the Belgium squad in midweek and City boss Pep Guardiola said he was not able to put a timescale on the midfielder’s return.
With a busy fixture schedule that sees City playing four Premier League and three Champions League matches in the next three weeks, any injury will be a significant setback.
“Unfortunately De Bruyne is out, but the rest of the players came back well,” Guardiola told a news conference. “I don’t think it is [serious], but the next games I think he will be out. We will see.”
The City boss also refused to confirm whether Aguero would be in his squad for the visit of Arsenal and will be careful with the Argentine striker, who has missed nearly four months after injuring his knee in a 5-0 victory over Burnley in June.
Following an operation in Barcelona, Aguero had hoped to be a part of the squad for the end-of-season Champions League tournament in Portugal but his recovery has taken longer than expected.
The 32-year-old returned to training with the first team during the international break and has a chance of being part of Guardiola’s squad.
“He’s trained well and we are happy, we need a striker,” Guardiola added. “We played without them but he’s trained three or four days and we are happy to see him back on the pitch after a long time.”
City have been without a recognised striker after Gabriel Jesus picked up an injury in the first game of the season against Wolves and the Brazilian is still yet to return to training.
“He had an injury in some muscles that mean we cannot take a risk,” Guardiola said. “It is in the front part of his leg and if it’s injured we’d lose him for a long time. I don’t know on the time.”
Guardiola started the season with a slew of injuries but he is starting to get more players fit and available. Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is available after recovering from Covid-19 while Joao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva featured in Portugal’s three matches during the international break.
The Catalan was happy that his players were able to get minutes on the pitch after a difficult and shortened pre-season for many of his squad.
“I never complain about international games, I know how important for the players for their countries, it’s a privilieged and they have to do it,” he said. “UEFA and FIFA have their own tournaments. We want the players to come back fit but they can get injured here training with us.
“Bernardo, Joao and other players could not have a normal pre-season so it was good for them to get the rhythm.”
Raheem Sterling could also be available to face the Gunners despite pulling out of the England squad with a hamstring injury.
Brescia head coach Diego Lopez told Corriere della Sera in June: “There’s only one truth here: the team have followed one path, Mario has followed another. I thought he could give so much, playing in the city of his birthplace.
“He had a lot to give but he had to do more, much more. These are the facts. Therefore, it’s normal that there’s disappointment.
“I spent a lot of time on him. He didn’t even show up on Zoom during quarantine.”
Genoa were reportedly prepared to offer Balotelli a one-year contract during the summer transfer window, but a final deal never came to fruition.
The Italian frontman has also been linked with a move to MLS, and he now claims that he has already got his next destination lined up.
During a live conversation with his brother Enock, who is currently taking part in the Italian version of the reality show Big Brother, Balotelli fielded questions on his future.
Asked where he has gone to ply his trade at the start of the 2020-21 campaign, the ex-City star responded: “I still don’t play, in a few weeks I’ll sign, don’t worry.”
Balotelli joined Brescia as a free agent in August 2019, and went on to score five goals in 19 appearances for his boyhood club.
He took in a brief spell at Marseille earlier that year after terminating his contract at Nice, where he had initially rebuilt his reputation after a disastrous spell at Liverpool.
Balotelli only managed to score four goals at Anfield between 2014 and 2016, failing to fill the boots of Luis Suarez upfront following the Uruguayan’s move to Barcelona.
The ex-Italy international enjoyed a prolific spell at Milan prior to his ill-fated stint on Merseyside, having moved to San Siro from City in 2013.
He also managed to win a Premier League title at Etihad Stadium, but never quite managed to live up to the potential of his early days at Inter, who sold him to the Manchester outfit for €22 million (£20m/$26m). in 2010.
Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne hit out at football’s crowded calendar on Saturday on the eve of their Nations League match against England, the second of three national-team games inside a week.
Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne has criticised football’s busy schedule post-lockdown, as he prepares to face England with Belgium.
“I’ve been playing without a break for two years now. But nobody listens to the players,” De Bruyne, who will captain the team against England at Wembley, told a news conference.
The match follows Belgium’s 1-1 friendly draw with the Ivory Coast on Thursday and will be followed by another Nations League trip to Iceland on Wednesday, before De Bruyne returns to play for his club Manchester City in the Premier League next weekend.
“Sometimes I worry. Especially when I look at my personal situation. I’ve had eight, nine days off this summer,” De Bruyne said.
“I couldn’t go on holiday because my wife was pregnant at the time, so basically I’ve not had a holiday and if the season goes on, it means I will have played for two years without a break.
“It takes a toll, especially mentally. I think, like everybody, you need a break just to switch off like everybody and your body needs to heal…
“I know everyone says ‘you earn a lot of money, you should handle it’. That’s the way it goes. I take it on the chin but I can see a lot of injuries coming,” he added.
De Bruyne also said he wanted to discuss a possible contract extension with Manchester City as soon as possible.
“I am happy in Manchester. I am open to conversations, but so far I haven’t spoken to City myself,” he told reporters.
The Spaniard was filmed in a respectful embrace with the Argentine at full-time and battled to find the words to describe the contest
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed he struggled to answer a question posed to him by Leeds United coach Marcelo Bielsa after their 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Saturday.
Despite Raheem Sterling’s 17th-minute opener, Guardiola’s side were unable to close out the contest with Rodrigo scoring a second-half equaliser for Leeds.
City were made to pay for being wasteful in the final third as they got just two of their 23 shots on target. Leeds also edged out Guardiola’s team for possession and passes as they continue to show they can compete in the top-flight this season.
Guardiola and Bielsa exchanged a hug after the full-time whistle blew with the latter eager to get his counterpart’s thoughts on the game – something the City manager struggled to produce so quickly.
“He said to me ‘What is your opinion of the game?’ And I said ‘After one second I am not able to analyse the game!” Guardiola told Sky Sports post-match.
“Maybe he’s cleverer than me! I’m not. I need time to process how was the game, but you know I said that I thought it was a good game, it was fair and that’s why the result was the result.”
Speaking later on, Guardiola would pay respect to Bielsa’s side for not shying away from the contest.
“The approach was incredible and it’s nice to face a team like Leeds because they want to win, like they did with Liverpool. It’s incredibly entertaining football and it’s interesting for the fans,” Guardiola told BBC’s Match of the Day.
“It was an entertaining game for everyone. I’m incredibly proud of these players who enjoy football and come to this country and play many years at a high level. This is their first pre-season together, we couldn’t do it more because the opponent was so good like all Marcelo Bielsa sides.”
Bielsa himself conceded that his side were second best for much of the game but managed to engineer moments of dominance that was ultimately rewarded.
“The start and the end were with City and the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half were a bit better for us,” Bielsa said.
“For them to be superior to us is pretty easy for them, it doesn’t require much effort, whereas for us it requires us to go to the limit to be on their level.
“We couldn’t take the ball off them and they were taking the ball off us very easily. We did it with a lot of effort, a lot of aggression to win the ball back and the confidence in our game grew.
“It wouldn’t have been fair if we had won the match, it would’ve been possible, but not fair.”
The UEFA Champions League, an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations on Thursday, October 1 presented awards to the 2019/2020 best performing players and coaches both in the male and female category.
The award event was conducted along with the draw for the 2020 season UEFA Champions League group stages in Geneva, Switzerland, Naija News understands.
See the below full list of the 2019/2020 UEFA Champions League Best Awards:
Best Men’s player: Lewandowski – Bayern Munich
Best Women’s player: Pernille Harder – Chelsea FC
Best Men’s Coach: Hansi Flick – Bayern Munich
Best Women’s coach: Jean-Luc Vasseur – Lyon
Best Women’s goalkeeper: Sarah Bouhaddi – Lyon
Best Men’s Best Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer – Bayern Munich
Best Men’s defender: Joshua Kimmich -Bayern Munich
Best Men’s midfielder: Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City
Manchester City are reportedly looking to bring in either David Alaba or Nicolas Tagliafico to strengthen their left-back options, but only if Oleksandr Zinchenko leaves the club first.
The Telegraph reports that Pep Guardiola is keen for Zinchenko, 23, to move on so that he can launch a bid for his new defensive targets. Indeed the move would come after City’s £65.2 million capture of Portuguese centre-half Ruben Dias.
Manchester City have now spent around £126million on players this transfer window having previously attained the services of Ferran Torres and Nathan Ake. Now Guardiola is facing a race against time to bring in his fourth signing ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline.
Zinchenko has been predominantly used as a back-up to Benjamin Mendy at left-back having turned down offers from numerous clubs, including Spanish outfit Real Betis, to try and fight for his place in the side. Now, however, The Telegraph says that in order for his club to bring in defensive reinforcements, he will have to make an Eithad Stadium exit three years and 68 games on since his arrival from PSV Eindhoven.
The 28-year-old Austrian worked under the City boss when he managed the German giants between 2013 and 2016. He won three of his nine Bundesliga titles during his tenure and also the 2013 Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. The news of Manchester City’s interest in the serial winner comes a month after Bayern Munich chief executive Oliver Khan stated he was “optimistic” that Alaba would sign a new deal with the European champions.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
