The manager of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, has revealed that he does not know how to stop Paris Saint Germain when his players face them later tonight, September 28, at 20:00.
Manchester City are currently in Paris preparing to take on star-studded PSG at the Parc Des Princes in the UEFA Champions League Group A game.
The two teams won their first Champions League group games which made them joint top of the group. Hence, if Manchester City beat PSG later tonight, the Premier League club would top the group with 6 points in 2 games.
Recall that last season, Manchester City met with PSG in the semi-final stage of the UEFA Champions League. Pep Guardiola was able to punish the French side by knocking them out of the tournament 4-1 on aggregate.
Then, PSG had players like Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Icardi, and D’Maria to worry about which Guardiola handled very well.
But this season, PSG have upgraded their squad and added more deadly players like Lionel Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Achraf Hakimi.
To make the match more difficult for Manchester City, Lionel Messi who missed PSG’s last two league games, his fit to play against the Premier League club tonight.
The 34-year-old Argentine football icon will meet Guardiola for the first time since he left FC Barcelona in August 2021.
Recall that between 2008 and 2012, Pep Guardiola guided Lionel Messi at FC Barcelona to win two UEFA Champions League and three Spanish La Liga titles.
Ahead of the Champions League game between Manchester City and PSG, Pep Guardiola who led Manchester City to the UEFA Champions League final last season said the number of talents at PSG would make it difficult to stop the French side.
“With this amount of quality I don’t know how to stop them, they’re so good,” said Guardiola. “This amount of talent makes it so difficult.
“They were a fantastic team last season. It was a tight game. And now they have Messi.”
Mauricio Pochettino calls Pep Guardiola the best coach in the world
Ahead of the Manchester City and PSG clash, the coach of PSG, Mauricio Pochettino has described Pep Guardiola as the best coach in the world.
The Argentine tactician noted that, unlike his team that need more time to work together, the current Manchester City squad has been under the tutelage of Guardiola for years.
“City have been under the best coach in the world, in my opinion, Pep Guardiola”, Pochettino said.
“They want to win the Champions League and they are further ahead than PSG in that process but we know that in a football match anything can happen.”
On the current PSG’s squad, Pochettino said: “They need time to work in different environments and to link up in a different way than they did in the past.
“PSG are always under pressure and big stars feel pressure for different things but the most important thing is that we are so happy with the squad that we have built. Now we need time.”
New season, same challenge! 🇫🇷🏆
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 28, 2021
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