When Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was faced with the question of whether his side were contenders for this year’s Champions League title, he fired back: “Apparently we are not.”
The Catalan coach has a rich history in Europe’s premier club competition. A champion with Barcelona during his playing career in 1992, Guardiola led his boyhood club to two Champions League titles in the space of his first three years as a senior manager. It took Guardiola another 12 years and five semifinal defeats before wrapping his hands around the big-eared trophy with Manchester City in 2023.
City’s defence of that title ended in the quarterfinal stage and they didn’t even make it that far last year. For the first time in his managerial career, Guardiola failed to guide his side to at least the round of 16, suffering a 6–3 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in the newly introduced knockout playoff round.
That underwhelming European run—which was underlined further by poor domestic form—has cast City as outsiders in the race for continental silverware in the eyes of some onlookers, according to Guardiola at least.
“Just enjoy the moment,” was the manager’s advice to his players. “We are happy to be here after the path we have been [on] so we are just focusing on tomorrow and the game we have to play and starting well in this competition.
“We have more games than the previous seasons but if you start with a bad result it can be difficult, last season we drew the first game against Inter and hopefully we can do better.”
Guardiola’s side start their supposedly doomed bid for European glory at home to Napoli on Thursday night. The Serie A champions notably picked up Kevin De Bruyne on a free transfer this summer after Manchester City, at Guardiola’s request, opted against giving the ageing playmaker a new contract.
The 54-year-old had a jovial response to the question of whether he was looking forward to seeing De Bruyne again. “After the game,” he wryly replied.
“Of course it’s nice to have him back,” Guardiola continued. “The players in that level [Serie A] adapt so quickly and they don’t need that much time to adapt.”
READ THE LATEST MAN CITY NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pep Guardiola Delivers Spiky Four-Word Verdict on Man City’s Champions League Chances.
