In last season’s Champions League, Manchester City lost to Chelsea and now with the start of the new season City coach Pep Guardiola has reflected on the loss of the previous term. After being defeated in the final UCL football match by Chelsea last season Pep Guardiola accepts the pressure to bring Manchester City Champions League glory.
He insists that City’s loss defeat to the Blues in the UEFA Champions League final last season was an “incredible achievement.” The biggest prize in European club football continues to elude City, who were defeated 1-0 by the Blues in Porto back in May. Since winning the European Championship title with Barcelona in 2011 Guardiola has not won the Champions League but he considers City’s performance in the competition last season to be a success.
As we record football news, Guardiola said on a press conference ahead of their opening fixture of this year’s tournament with RB Leipzig on Wednesday: “Every time I start this competition with drive. I’m incredibly happy here. Man City made a step forward last season, we improved a lot. We had 13 games and we won 11. We played incredibly well in Porto when we drew and deserved to win.”
“We lost the final. People can say Man City was a failure but it was an incredible achievement last season playing really well in many of the games and losing well against a big contender. Now we start a new one and every team wants to win. We’re going to try but I won’t tell you which team is going to win because I don’t know it. We’re going to train this afternoon and try to continue the rhythm from Norwich, Arsenal and Leicester.”
“The most important thing for the club is we were always in this competition in the last years. We do really well, which is why we deserve to be there. After that, compete with the best teams in Europe. It is not guaranteed that if you do a really bad Champions League season you’re going to do a really bad Champions League season again and it is the same with the opposite. The first target is to win tomorrow, try to continue the rhythm and the way we played last season and the last three games, and see what happens.”
He was questioned if the expectation of needing to win the Champions League annoys him, Guardiola replied: “I accept it. Every year is the same. If I win the Champions League I will be happy for the club. If I’m not able to do it, I’m not able. After, you can judge the success of my period. I try to do my best every single day, winning or not winning. People judge my job like I judge my players and how incredibly they’ve done in the last five years.”
