2023-04-19 17:08:52
RReturnee Pep Guardiola seemed overwhelmed by the request to test his German skills, but the Catalan finally completed the task with aplomb. “Ui, I’m trying,” said the Manchester City team manager before the quarter-final second leg in the Champions League at his former club Bayern Munich on Wednesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and at DAZN) – and started smiling.
“I had an incredible time here with my family. The club is exceptional, I have many, many friends here,” enthused the 52-year-old about his three seasons (2013/14 to 2015/16) with the record German champions. Result management will therefore not be the tactic of his team. “We’re not here to defend anything. We want to play our game.”
The English champions go into the decision with a reassuring 3-0 lead from the first leg. And the statistics clearly speak for City: only four clubs in the history of the Champions League have made up for a deficit of three or more goals in a knockout round. Despite the good starting position, Guardiola warned at the beginning of his press conference – still in English – against underestimating Bayern. “I was at this club, I know how they tick, you can feel it everywhere, it’s in their skin, they believe in it.”
In typical Guardiola diction, the 52-year-old warned against meeting again with a “great, great, great team”. His eleven have to “act aggressively to win”. That is a basic attitude, “and it has to be in the minds of my players”. There – and not with the legs – the duel will be decided: “We need a lot of energy and great courage. If we’re just a little bit passive, they can do to us what we did to them.”
During his time in Munich, Guardiola won all three German championships with FC Bayern and twice the double – in the premier class, however, the successor to triple winner Jupp Heynckes always ended up in the semi-finals. Even with City, which Guardiola led to four championships, four League Cup wins and one FA Cup success in seven years, he has been chasing the “handle pot” – which he had already won with FC Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 – so far in vain.
Bayern shouldn’t stop him when he tries again: “I’m here to win,” said the star coach. The joy of seeing old friends again comes afterwards: “After the game, I’m sure I’ll see a lot of people”.
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