GUARDIOLA’S EURO BASH
ETIHAD ACE FODEN LOVES TO PHIL HIS BOOTS WHEN IT’S KOP ARCH-RIVALS His side must win Champions League or never get ‘recognition from everyone in the world’
PHIL FODEN has got Liverpool in his sights again – and insists Manchester City’s record against their title rivals gives Pep Guardiola’s side confidence they will prevail again at the Etihad.
Foden has scored in each of his last three appearances against the Merseysiders and Guardiola is yet to lose a Premier League home game at the hands of Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool have taken all three points away from the Etihad just once in their last 12 visits.
Foden said: “I don’t think my scoring record has so much to do with Liverpool – I just think it is a big game and I like playing in big games.
“I like the pressure and I feel like I play better. It is another big game for me and I just want to express myself.
“Hopefully, I can carry on that record and carry on that form. We’ve only lost one at home in 12 years in the Premier League against Liverpool and that is such a great record to have.
“Hopefully we can carry that on. If we have the fans behind us, with the way we play, I am sure we can.
“It was definitely important to win at Anfield last season and now every time that we go there we feel like we can do that again.
“We know Liverpool are a great team and it is such a challenge. Hopefully we can break them down and win.”
Foden insists City are not daunted by a schedule that will see them face Liverpool twice in the space of six days – today’s Premier League duel then Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final.
Before that, in midweek, they travel to Atletico Madrid after beating the Spanish side 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Foden came off the bench to set up the Kevin De Bruyne strike that sank Diego Simeone’s cynical visitors.
Foden said: “When we saw the schedule and the tough games that we have got we were all just excited to go out there and try to play against the best opposition and try to win.
“We have got to beat the biggest teams to win things. The rivalry with Liverpool is massive. Over the past four years it has grown and now it has become a big thing.
“We have been the two strongest sides in the past few years. It’s a rivalry where we know we are both great teams and we can both win on our day.
“I would say they are the hardest team to play against.
The way that they press you and give you no time on the ball.
“It is something we have to prepare for, but we know our strengths can hurt them as well.
“It is going to be a great game.”
PEP GUARDIOLA has admitted that Manchester City have to win the Champions League if they are to be remembered as one of football’s greatest teams.
City have been the dominant domestic force of the last decade, winning five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and six League Cups.
But on a day that could decide the destiny of the championship, Guardiola accepts that he has to get his hands on the European crown for City to be considered genuine football royalty.
His side face six-time European champions Liverpool at the Etihad today, and Guardiola said: “What we feel inside is that we will remember this period with big satisfaction at what we have done.
“Sometimes we are happy. But we also need the proof from outside to get the happiness – and that is stupid.
“Always you are looking for proof from the outside that what you are doing is right.
“I agree with those people who say, ‘Yes, but they didn’t win in Europe, they didn’t win the Champions League’ – and maybe they are right.
“To get this recognition from everyone in the world you have to conquer Europe.
“Maybe it’s not going to happen, I don’t know.
“But so far, with what we have done here, we are incredibly happy, because we have fun first of all and have done many good things. That’s my feeling.
“If it’s enough or not enough, it doesn’t matter.” City face Liverpool holding a one-point lead at the top of the Premier League after being reeled in by Jurgen Klopp’s side since January.
City had a 14-point advantage before Liverpool won their two matches in hand during a 10-game winning streak.
Klopp, who ruled Europe in 2019 (right), has already lifted the Carabao Cup this season, and his team will face City again on Saturday, in the semifinals of the FA Cup.
In midweek, both clubs go into their Champions League quarter-finals holding first-leg leads, after City beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 and the Reds returned from Benfica with a 3-1 victory. Liverpool are still in the running for an historic Quadruple. City are on a Treble hunt, and the Champions League draw means the two clubs are on course to meet in the final in Paris next month.
Guardiola and Klopp have forged one of the Premier League’s greatest rivalries over the last few years after locking horns in the Bundesliga when the Catalan was coach of Bayern Munich and the German was in charge of Borussia Dortmund.
Guardiola learned a bit in Spain about intense runs of head-to-heads.
The City manager believes that he now faces a week that has the same hallmarks of a legendary period during his time as Barcelona boss when his team met bitter rivals Real Madrid four times in the space of 18 dramatic days.
Barca went on to win La Liga after a draw in the Bernabeu, and prevailed over two legs in the Champions League after losing to Jose Mourinho’s Real side in the Copa del Rey final.
All four games were tempestuous and poisonous affairs.
Guardiola said: “It’s quite similar, the rivalry with Liverpool. But the atmosphere here is different. It is not comparable with Barcelona and Madrid.
“It’s not that City against Liverpool is better or worse, it’s just different – the way football is lived here and in Spain is completely different.
“This is the best country in the world to be a manager. The best. And to be a football player as well. It’s the best.
“Listen, we get criticism and a lot of nice things, depending on whether we lose or win. But how people respect managers and players is incomparable to other countries in my opinion.”