2023-05-08 20:29:55
With the virtue of experience he entered Pep Guardiola to the press room of the Santiago Bernabéu. It is the fourth time that the Catalan has faced Real Madrid in the semifinals of Champions League; He won once with Barcelona in those Mourinhista wars, lost resoundingly with Bayern and suffered an implausible comeback last year with City.
With everything already lived through, and with the apparent stoic illusion of winning the European Cup again outside of Barça, Guardiola spoke calmly of the recent past: «We had a very good tie last year, we played very well in both games and it wasn’t enough. What happened helps us face the semifinal this year.
The bulk of Guardiola’s short presence in the ins and outs of the Santiago Bernabéu revolved around last year’s tie, when the options of accessing the final in Paris escaped him in five minutes of ordeal in the Spanish capital.
“We are not here for revenge. We learned from what happened and we will try to go to the final in the Manchester game. It is a new opportunity”, said, calmly, the coach of the celestial ones.
Asked about the mental strength of his team this year, Pep sarcastically replied: “Last year we came here very strong mentally after the Manchester game. But Mendy took a ball out on the line and Courtois saved a shot with his heels. I have seen both games last year and we were exceptional. But it was not enough”.
Jugar para Haaland
Soon after, the man of the hour, Erling Haaland was obviously mentioned. On how the Norwegian has changed the game of his team, Guardiola believes that it benefits them to play long on him when the teams pressure him up and on the man. In addition, he did not hide from saying that he is a player of such caliber that on certain occasions City organizes his football around him. “We’ll play for him tomorrow when we can.”
Likewise, for Real Madrid, whom he defined as the best team in the Champions League, he only had praise. “Stability is the most important thing in football. We are in the Premier, but Madrid is always stable in this competition.
Finally, after stating that he does not know what Ancelotti’s plan will be for this Tuesday’s game, Guardiola sent a message to his team: “Maybe an extension at home would benefit us, but We can’t go crazy for winning the Champions League. We do not have any”.
Rodri cries revenge
The coach of Sampedor was accompanied by his helm in the middle of the citizen field before the media, the Spanish international Rodri Hernandez: «The good thing about football gives you revenge. We are here to fight again. We arrived at the best moment and we will try to do things better this year to be in Istanbul. We know that if we want to win it we have to beat the best. We need to bring out our best version tomorrow; be smart, and try to be the team that has 10 wins in a row in the Premier League.”
In the same way, after a barrage of questions about last year’s semifinal, the former Atlético de Madrid player showed remarkable ambition before the imminent new duel against Real Madrid. “Football is like that: we had a perfect tie but in the last five minutes everything changed. But I don’t want to talk about the past because we are here to fight again. We want revenge.”
#rematch #opportunity