City still not ready, says Guardiola
Will Manchester City ever have a better chance to win the Champions League?
“We are still not ready to fight for the latter stages, that is the reality,” Pep Guardiola said in reaction to beating Schalke 3-2 in the first leg of Manchester City’s Champions League last-16 tie.
City manager Guardiola was frustrated that after taking an early lead in Gelsenkirchen, his side conceded two penalties to a side ranked 14th in the Bundesliga before Nicolas Otamendi’s red card left the Premier League champions and favourites to play the final 22 minutes with 10 men.
“We gave away the first penalty, we gave away the second penalty, we gave away the red card. In this competition that is not good.”
The fact that City still had the individual talent to come from behind a man down thanks to a brilliant Leroy Sane free-kick and Raheem Sterling’s injury-time winner, shows why they remain on course for a historic quadruple of trophies.
However, for the varying degrees of glory retaining the Premier League title or winning the FA Cup would bring to add to the League Cup won in February, it is the Champions League that City and Guardiola most desire.
The Catalan coach had to field questions before the first leg against Schalke over his failure to win the competition since doing so in two of his first three years in charge of Barcelona in 2009 and 2011.
More than a decade into the club’s Abu Dhabi-backed ownership, after billions of pounds invested and three domestic ti- tles, conquering Europe remains the mountain City still have to climb.
They may also never get a better chance than in the next few months.
A Uefa investigation launched this week into allegations City broke financial fairplay rules, risks the sanction of the club being banned from the Champions League for a season.
Moreover, the Champions League has rarely been so open for a new winner.
Manchester United, Tottenham, Ajax and Porto are the sides to have so far booked their place in the quarterfinals, none of whom made the last eight last season.
Real Madrid, winners for four of the past five seasons, are already out, as are free-spending Paris Saint-Germain.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus look set to follow unless they overcome a 2-0 deficit against the notoriously hardto-beat Atletico Madrid, while one of Liverpool (City’s Champions League conquerors last season) or Bayern Munich (semifinalists in six of the past seven seasons) will also be eliminated this week.
In his seven seasons at Barca and Bayern, Guardiola never failed to make the Champions League semifinals.
Only once in their history have City made the last four when they lost to Madrid three years ago.
Guardiola has used that crutch to repeatedly play down City’s chances of challenging for the Champions League in his three years in Manchester.
“Comparing to Barcelona, [Real] Madrid, Bayern Munich – they have historically incredible results, we cannot compare,” Guardiola said.
However City’s time to win the Champions League should be now, starting with seeing off Schalke with ease in the last-16 second leg on Tuesday. – AFP