Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes his club are still not ready to win the Champions League.
The 48-year-old coach made his observation following the Premier League champion’s return to winning ways at Crystal Palace.
City in the Champions League: Five key things to know…
- 2019/20 is the ninth season Man City have played in Europe’s premier club competition.
- Their best result is reaching the semi-finals in 2015/16 under Manuel Pellegrini.
- Since two-time European Cup winning manager Pep Guardiola arrived they’ve not advanced further than the quarter-finals.
- Spurs and Liverpool would dump them out at the stage in the last two seasons.
- City, despite Guardiola’s belief of not being ready to win the competition, remain one of the favourites.
https://audioboom.com/posts/7399272
City had gone into the recent international break on the back off a humbling 2-0 home loss against struggling Wolves, which enabled Liverpool to open up an eight-point gap atop of the Premier League. However, City have since reduced the gap to six following Liverpool’s draw at arch-rivals Manchester United combined with their own victory.
Guardiola’s side ran out 2-0 winners at Selhurst Park, but the scoreline could have been different. In the final moments Gabriel Jesus should have teed-up Kevin De Bruyne for a simple tap in but the Brazilian marksman – who had opened the scoring – instead wanted to double his tally.
His effort was saved with, naturally, frustrated De Bruyne as well as his manager who felt if they are to win a first European Cup, then being more selfless – whilst not losing that ruthless streak – is paramount.
Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel here.
“The last action … like when he has to pass to Kevin, he has to do it,” he said.
“But he is so young. We missed a lot of chances and also lost a lot of chances in the box. We have to be clinical.
“The people say about the Champions League, that target. We still are not ready. We create a lot, don’t concede, but can improve.
“We’ve scored a lot over the last two seasons and I don’t have doubts about that, but we have to keep going, work on that.”