Published 20:27 IST, June 10th 2023
Pep Guardiola speaks on his success as manager, reveals two premier stars as the reason
Despite proving his dominance time and time again on English soil Pep Guardiola's failure on the European front has been seen as a major gap.
Pep Guardiola is about to venture into perhaps the most important match of his managerial career as Manchester City takes on Inter Milan in the Champions League final. Despite proving his dominance time and time again on English soil, his failure on the European front has been witnessed as a major gap in his City diaries. The Spanish manager could now seal a continental treble for the second time in his career in Istanbul.
City has faltered a couple of times when their European dreams were crushed by opponents. This time, they have drawn a relatively easy team, but they cannot take things for granted given their performance in this competition over the years. Pep has handled many talented players. But ahead of this grand clash, the former Barcelona manager stated that having managed both Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland is his greatest success.
"Have good players! Having Messi in the past and having Haaland now, that is my success. I’m not joking, it’s the truth! Let them feel that alone they can’t do it, and let them feel that together we are strong with the same idea. The guys who follow me will be here... Every manager that has success has strong institutions and strong institutions have strong players. Let me tell you, as a manager I’ve never scored a goal."
The City F.C. is being tipped to pip Inter to the trophy, but the manager refuses to draw a conclusion.
Look how many people are here in the press conference room. This doesn’t always happen; I don’t control what opinion people have of the game. I saw as many Inter games as possible to know them, we will try to play our game. In the end, it’s a football game, and whoever does it best in 95 minutes will win.
If we look at the history of the two teams, Inter are bigger than us but that’s not important, calling favourites is not important. The important thing is that at 10 p.m. Istanbul time, we have the best performance possible. That will make the difference."
Having already conquered the Premier League and FA Cup, it is now a golden opportunity for the manager to etch his name forever in the history of football.
Updated 20:27 IST, June 10th 2023