Guardiola surrenders to Cristiano: “It was too good…”

He is the main threat to Manchester City, according to his own coach. A footballer whom he has faced on multiple occasions, both in the Spanish league and in European competition. After the light blue victory at Old Trafford in the first round, Pep Guardiola and Cristiano Ronaldo will meet again on Sunday. In the press conference on Friday, the Catalan spoke of the potential and the evolution of the Portuguese: “He is one of the best players of the last 15 years along with Messi. We will not see something like this again. When you achieve so many things you are under scrutiny every day. Especially today with social media. He’s been too good and he’s an exceptional finisher. It was a joy to see him play all these years“.

“We have to manage the game and the strength, prevent him from getting close to the ball,” said the coach ahead of Sunday’s game. “When we played at Old Trafford we controlled the game, and the first time he came in, Ederson made an incredible save. He has a lot of quality, we have to control him. He is one of the best, a scoring machine, and he always has a very strong mentality.. He handles pressure without problems, he has managed to handle expectations during his career in a positive way.”

Pep Guardiola also spoke of another Portuguese, Rúben Dias. The center is lowand according to the City coach, he still needs time to return to the team: “He’s muscular, in the hamstrings. These things happen. He will be gone between four and six weeks. Other seasons, our best players have been injured for months. I would love for him to play, but he won’t be able to. I won’t cry, it is what it is. We have good players available, 14 or 15.”

Oleksandr Zinchenko was once again the protagonist in Pep’s conversation with the press. “It’s worrying, the war continues and the situation is getting worse,” said the coach. The Catalan also spoke about the gestures of the Premier League and the shows of support in recent days: “They are important, but in the end they are just gestures. Politicians could avoid these things, but they end up happening because they have completely failed. It happens because they are not able to solve it. There are innocent people suffering and it continues to happen. NATO and European nations have failed.”

Foden and Grealish are inspired by Messi

On a more positive note, Pep Guardiola celebrated that Phil Foden and Jack Grealish have been reviewing Leo Messi’s plays. The attacking duo combined midweek, against Peterborough in the FA Cup, to score a trademark goal for the Argentine. “My advice to Phil and Jack is to keep watching videos of Messi. You have my permission.”