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Guardiola: Manchester City Won’t Be an Easy Target for Real Madrid or Bayern

Spanish coach Pep Guardiola ruled out the possibility of Manchester City winning the UEFA Champions League with their current form, but he emphasized that his team would be better prepared when facing either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich next month in the knockout rounds.

City bounced back from a goal down to defeat Club Brugge 3-1 on Wednesday, avoiding elimination from the group stage for the first time since 2012.

However, they are set to face either the defending champions Real Madrid or Guardiola’s former team Bayern Munich, depending on Friday’s draw.

City has struggled in the Premier League this season, sitting in fourth place, 12 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Nevertheless, Guardiola expressed confidence that the return of injured players and new signings like Egyptian Omar Marmoush, Uzbek Abdulkadir Khusanov, and Brazilian Vitor Reis would benefit the team in the coming weeks.

In response to a question about whether the 2023 champions could win the continental title again, Guardiola said: “Not at the moment. I’m being realistic.”

He added: “Madrid has returned strong in terms of results, and Bayern is having an amazing season with Vinnie (coach Vincent Kompany). If we had to play tomorrow, it would be difficult, but in two weeks, we don’t know.”

He continued, “We’ll prepare well, be ready, and we’ll try. Let’s see what happens.”

Despite struggling in the first half of the season, City has won six matches and drawn one in their last eight games.

Guardiola stated, “At least recently, we’ve been getting good results. We’re in fourth place in the Premier League, and we’re not competing for the title, but we’re still in contention.”

He added, “In the FA Cup, we are in the race. Sometimes things seem impossible today, but tomorrow the mentality and atmosphere change, and I’m sure we’ll try to cause problems for Real Madrid or Bayern.”

City’s near-elimination was a key factor in making the last round of the group stage in the inaugural Swiss-model competition a highly anticipated event.

Guardiola expressed his appreciation for the changes in the tournament’s early stages, making the competition more attractive to fans, even if it caused him more stress.

He believes many other major clubs will face similar struggles in the future.

He explained, “The problem is that we play many games in October, November, and December, and in the future, big teams will experience what we’ve gone through this season.”

He continued, “We were close to being eliminated; we were 45 minutes away from that. It’s an incredible lesson for me and the club that nothing is taken for granted.”

He added, “I congratulate the team for still having pride, and we’ll see how we do in two weeks.”

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