Manchester City are easily one of the favourites to win the Champions League this season but their manager Pep Guardiola is not so sure about that.
City will take on Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday and before that their manager has claimed that he is not quite sure if his team will get through to the knockout stages.
The Citizens have been drawn in a fairly easy group but last night we saw that reputations do not mean anything as Liverpool went down to Belgrade away from home.
And as City travel away from home, Pep Guardiola has claimed that his whole squad need to put in maximum effort if they wish to enter the knockout stages.
Talking before the game, Guardiola said: “Of course winning away helps us especially to be more conscious and more able to say maybe we can do that next step,
“But I don’t know if the next steps we reach will be enough to reach the late stages. The first step is to qualify and we have three chances. Win the two at home and we’ll be there. That’s the first target.
“People say it’s not enough but in my opinion to reach the quarter-finals is already a big success today. Big clubs are going to be out, they’re not going to qualify for the next round so going through is already a big achievement.
“I know people won’t agree with me – no problem at all – but if we can do that we can arrive in the knockout games in the best condition possible.”
This message from Pep Guardiola has certainly spit the judgements of many people with some claiming that the Spaniard is just trying to be humble. But other feel that Pep Guardiola has understood that he will not be able to win the Champions League this season and is speaking his heart out.
While a win for Man City would mean that they will have one foot in the next round but on Wednesday almost everyone would be watching their cross-town rivals as they take on Juventus away from home.
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