Pep Guardiola expects Manchester City to be in a stronger position when they face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the Champions League play-off and questioned whether the two giants are keen to face the Blues.
City sneaked into the top 24 with a second-half comeback against Club Brugge in their eighth and final game of the first phase, earning them a play-off spot against one of two clubs with 21 Champions League trophies between them. Having struggled to beat anybody in the competition this season apart from Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava, the Blues will be underdogs against whoever they go up against.
Guardiola knows that, but believes that he can have more of his squad available to him than he has had for most of the last few months. As well as the three new signings, three injured players could be back to help City cause more problems in the tie than they would be expected to if the game was played this week.
“We deserve it. I don’t know if they are happy to play against us but it is what it is. No complaints,” said Guardiola. “We’re going to face them.
“One is the king of the competition, the other is the second or third. We will experience the second leg there. What I wish from the beginning of the season is to have the team back and players fit. I accept Rodri but not the other ones.
“We played this competition with a thousand million problems and faced Sporting at their highest with Amorim and then after they dropped. PSG, Juventus. Inter we played really good and could not win but Feyenoord especially was a tough moment with 3-0 15 minutes left and that moment mentally was really tough. In that moment, I said if we arrive to Brugge with a chance to qualify I sign right now because I felt the team in the moment were not as we were.
“That’s why I wanted these two weeks – Ruben, Nathan, Jeremy, Oscar, the new signings and everyone can compete. Both of them right now tonight are better than us but I don’t know what’s going to happen in two weeks.
“You might say it’s impossible today but tomorrow the mindset or vibes change and I’m pretty sure we will create problems for Bayern or Real because the players have something special.”