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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Connor O'Neill

Pep Guardiola makes Liverpool claim about Man City Champions League final preparations

Pep Guardiola has claimed he is not under major pressure to win the Champions League at Manchester City, but he would be if he managed Liverpool.

City will be hoping to cap off their campaign by winning the European Cup for the first time in their history on Saturday night.

Guardiola’s side face Premier League rivals Chelsea at Porto's Estadio do Dragao in an all-English showdown for Europe’s top club prize.

Saturday’s game will be the third time Guardiola has managed in a Champions League final, with his last coming back in 2011.

Guardiola’s star-studded Barcelona side beat Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley to secure a second Champions League in three-years.

And ahead of the game, the City boss has explained how he is under no pressure to win the Champions League at the Etihad, but he would if managed Liverpool or United.

“I didn’t come here because the club said ‘you have to win the Champions League’,” Guardiola told Rio Ferdinand in an interview for BT Sport.

“If I went to United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, you’d always hear ‘you have to win the Champions League’.

“I do not feel that pressure here. The only pressure I feel here? To play your team like the way why you took over. You took over to play a certain way, you have to do everything this way.”

Despite being crowned Premier League champions this season, Chelsea have beaten City in their last two meetings.

But Guardiola does not feel that those two defeats mean Thomas Tuchel’s side have the advantage going into tomorrow’s game.

He said: "Absolutely nothing - zero. I know how we prepare for this final and the reason why, we came just two days after qualifying through the Dortmund game and after the semi-finals, you know in that moment - well deserved, congratulations to Chelsea, but it's a new game, we'll face them Saturday and see what happens."

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