Manchester City need to compete in the eighth-final first leg of the Champions League at Schalke 04. For coach Pep Guardiola, this is likely to be only a stopover on the way to Triumph, even if he himself denies it.
Pep Guardiola did not flinch: “Paris Saint-Germain would also have to trust hardly anyone, that they can win without Neymar and Edison Cavani at Manchester United,” said the coach of Manchester City in the evening in front of the eighth-final first leg in the European “king’s class” in the case of Schalke 04 and added: “And, my friend, you have won 2:0. This is the Champions League.”
Surprisingly, it was Guardiola, with this example, the FC Schalke. Only the biggest optimists in the Ruhr area would have thought of this comparison between the Parisians and the one that is currently tumbling scarf core. But Guardiola tried everything to the oversized role of favorite, the the English before this game is covered from all sides, to talk as small as possible. A failure of Guardiola’s Manchester would be with a view to the current immense sporting differences to Domenico Tedesco’s Schalke extremely unlikely.
A Huge Investment
“You have the quality. Schalke always fights until the end. To play there is always complicated, you have the Fans as the twelfth man,” spoke the Spaniard, the enemy still strong. Guardiola is in his third year in Manchester slowly under pressure to act, the get king classes-trophy, finally, to the North of England.
Sergio “Kun” Aguero (l.) and Kevin De Bruyne (R.) are just two of the many Superstars in the squad of Manchester city
After Guardiola with FC Barcelona twice in the Champions League succeeded (2009, 2011), he managed neither at FC Bayern (2013-2016), yet in England, to win the most important title in European club football again. The investments made by the club owner from the United Arab Emirates in the past three seasons add up to a total of over 600 million euros.
And slowly paid: Because of the opportunities in this season are not so bad: “In the third year, the team know after many training sessions and many meetings, exactly, what it is. Something like that takes time,” said Guardiola.
Strong Development Sanés
Especially important players such as Leroy Sané, the returns with City now after Schalke’s home have improved under Guardiola and go to your duties now permanently clear of serious. “He has developed very well. He is an incredible player. And he could be an even more unlikely more players,” praised the Coach of the German national team. “But it is always the player himself”
Leroy Sané has developed under Pep Guardiola one of the best attacking players in Europe
In spite of all the efforts to talk about the Superiority of his team small, have a certain claim on his players Guardiola has formulated quite clearly: “I would like to see from my team, that we play with character and Charisma, and a good result for the return game out of the game. We have to be focused every second.”
And so, Guardiola was quite understanding of the fact that the Schalke calculate maybe “in a game of something. But, we reckon, of course, also something. Maybe we can score a goal,” said Guardiola in terms of the first 90 minutes the course is unknown. And also in this slightly understated statement Guardiola had put back to his very serious face.