MADRID, 5 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The manager of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, predicted a “difficult” game this Tuesday in the Champions League against Sevilla, a rival from which they are “very far in Europe” at the level of history and that will try to “take it to the limit “, while making it clear that they cannot trust everything to Erling Haaland if he wants to conquer this title.
“This match will be difficult because the Spanish teams dominate in Europe. I would love to have a history like the one Sevilla has, I think that City is very far from it in Europe,” Guardiola confessed at a press conference prior to the match.
The Catalan was happy to play in “a magnificent stadium” like the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán where he awaits a rival who “is not going to worry only about defending”. “We have to be prepared because they are going to be aggressive. This competition is played with great enthusiasm and even more so in a stadium like this, so we have to be prepared for that and we have to pick up the pace,” he stressed.
The man from Santpedor insisted that the Seville team “is a club with history.” “It’s a challenge, we want to be qualified for the round of 16 soon because this Champions League is going to be played in a short time,” he recalled in relation to the shorter time in the group stage for the World Cup in Qatar.
“Surely they are going to push us to the limit and we have to be prepared from the first minute because if they don’t they run over you. More than tactics, we have to give a lot of importance to the emotional aspect,” Guardiola warned.
Regarding Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, who has started the season at a high level, the City coach stressed that “all the players” who sign is to make them a “better” team. “But if we only trust Erling, we won’t win the Champions League,” he warned.
“He came because we were able to convince him. We didn’t have a striker and he felt he could play with us. He is adapting well, like Julián (Álvarez) and the rest of the new players. I understand that everyone is talking about Erling, but we have six new players and I want them to adapt as quickly as possible. We didn’t win for him, but he has special talent and can help us solve problems, no doubt. But if we don’t play well, we won’t win.”