Guardiola proud to beat ‘best’

HIS team’s 2-1 victory over Napoli in the Champions League group phase is one of the proudest moments of his career, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said.

Manchester City took a quick-fire 2-0 lead in Tuesday night’s game, through Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, but a Amadou Diawara penalty – after Dries Mertens had squandered an earlier spotkick – made for a nervy finale.

Prior to the game, Guardiola had lavished praise on Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli – who are top of Serie A, with eight wins from eight games – and afterwards he made the surprising claim that they were the best opponent he had ever faced.

“I think it was an extraordinary game from both sides,” Guardiola, who had previously led Barcelona to two Champions League titles, said.

“We faced one of the best sides I faced in my career, probably the best. It is one of the wins I am most proud of in my career. “We won against an incredible team.” Sterling and Jesus struck in the first 13 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, at which point Premier League leaders City looked set for a victory comparable to Saturday’s 7-2 demolition of Stoke City. But the home side’s commitment to building play up from the back gifted Napoli opportunities that the visitors eventually exploited.

Although Mertens squandered their first penalty in the first half, drilling his spot-kick at Ederson’s legs, Diawara made no such mistake in the 73rd minute, after Brazilian Fernandinho was penalised for felling Faouzi Ghoulam.

However, when asked if City’s tactics had invited pressure from Napoli, Guardiola said the solution was not less passing out from the back, but more.

“We have to do it more,” Guardiola, whose side are three points clear of Shakhtar Donetsk at the top of in Group F, said.

“You have build-up better, to contact with Kevin [De Bruyne] and [David] Silva.”

Sarri said his side’s show compared favourably with their last trip to a European heavyweight, when they lost 3-1 away to Real Madrid in the last 16 of last season.

“Even after missing a penalty, we managed to come back fighting,” Sarri, whose side trail Shakhtar by three points, said.

“We must feel reassured and even more confident. It was a big step forward.” –