{"id":1102041,"date":"2019-08-16T16:35:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T15:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1102041"},"modified":"2019-08-16T17:31:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T16:31:18","slug":"guardiola-spurs-europe-second-best","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/guardiola-spurs-europe-second-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham &#8220;the second-best team in Europe&#8221; &#8211; Pep Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has described Tottenham Hotspur as the &#8220;second-best team in Europe&#8221; ahead of their mouthwatering Premier League clash.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Spurs visit the English champions on Saturday evening with both sides looking to secure back-to-back league wins after triumphing in their opening fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7343141-chelsea-can-get-excited-about-n-golo-kante-s-messi-impression<\/p>\n<p>City, seeking a third championship on the bounce this season, comfortably swept West Ham aside win a 5-0 win whilst Mauricio Pochettino&#8217;s side had to come from a goal behind in their 3-1 victory over newly-promoted Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>This game marks the second league meeting between them following a pulsating Champions League quarter-final showdown which Spurs edged out on away goals after they were tied 4-4 on aggregate.<\/p>\n<p>Since arriving in England on the back off three Bundesliga titles won at Bayern Munich, there have been a few teams to have pushed Guardiola&#8217;s City as much as Spurs, who reached their first European Cup final last season only to fall at Liverpool&#8217;s hands.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that painful setback, Guardiola nevertheless feels Spurs are now contenders for the big prizes, and in discussing the upcoming showdown in Manchester referred to their runners-up status as proof they are heading in the right direction under Pochettino.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Can Raheem Sterling be Top Goalscorer? w\/Jamie Jackson and Sam Lee\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g8-k6cnP3wA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We learnt how good they are on many occasions,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mancity.com\/news\/first-team\/first-team-news\/2019\/august\/pep-guardiola-city-v-tottenham-press-conference-preview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re the second-best team in Europe. Since I came here to England they&#8217;ve been a real contender every season. The first season they finished second\u2026 they&#8217;ve always been there or thereabouts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Pep vs. Poch: Five key things to know\u2026<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>This will be the 18th meeting between Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.<\/li>\n<li>They faced each other nine times in Spain with Guardiola (Barcelona) winning five games to one against Pochettino (Espanyol).<\/li>\n<li>Since resuming their head-to-head in England the current Spurs boss has fared better.<\/li>\n<li>Pochettino has defeated Pep twice, but losing five times in return.<\/li>\n<li>However, one of those wins came in last season&#8217;s Champions League first-leg (1-0), which ultimately proved to be the difference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script>(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='https:\/\/embed.playbuzz.com\/sdk.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,'script','playbuzz-sdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"playbuzz\" data-id=\"62c553a6-2252-4d2e-b495-31e52a22ea76\" data-show-share=\"false\" data-show-info=\"false\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has described Tottenham Hotspur as the &#8220;second-best team in Europe&#8221; ahead of their mouthwatering Premier League clash. Spurs visit the English champions on Saturday evening with both sides looking to secure back-to-back league wins after triumphing in their opening fixtures. https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7343141-chelsea-can-get-excited-about-n-golo-kante-s-messi-impression City, seeking a third championship on the bounce this&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1102043,"parent":0,"menu_order":5601,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has described Tottenham Hotspur as the \"second best team in Europe\" ahead of their Premier League clash.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1102041","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tottenham &quot;the second-best team in Europe&quot; 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