Pep backs City to rise to the occasion

has claimed that Manchester City love the pressure of the life-or-death situations of the end of the season.

City are in a three-team title race with Arsenal and Liverpool and competing for a second consecutive treble, with a Champions League quarterfinal against Real Madrid and an FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea this week.

And Guardiola senses his side are savouring the high-stakes games, saying: “They like to play the pressure. They like it when you are dead or alive.

“That doesn’t mean we are going to do it but I am pretty sure we will be there until the end because I know them, I see their faces before in the meetings before games and how they prepare.

“That means we’ll be Premier League champions? No, no. I am not saying that. But we will compete, that is for sure.

“Still we are there. What a privilege. I could not change our position for any other team. What we have done this season, we live for that.

“Playing for something, not playing for other things, the big trophies. And still we are there. Again, it is so good.”

Guardiola faces a decision whether to recall captain Kyle Walker against Real on Wednesday (Thurs 3am Malaysian time) after the fit-again right-back returned to the bench for Saturday’s 51 win over Luton.

The defender was injured in England’s defeat to Brazil last month and Guardiola does not want to run the risk of losing Walker again by rushing him back, though he may want his pace against Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior.

He added: “He feels much better but he was injured, so now we will see in the next days. But he is good, he feels good.

“Maybe he can help with minutes because it is a ‘final’ but I don’t want to lose him for a long time if he gets injured. He will train a bit more now and we will decide.

“I know how important Kyle is against the players from Real Madrid. But he was not in Madrid and Manu, Josko, John and Ruben (Manuel Akanji, Josko Gvardiol, John Stones and Ruben Dias) played incredibly well. We will see.” – The Independent