MADRID, May 16. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola, has assured that his “legacy” in the English team “is already exceptional” no matter what happens this Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals against Real Madrid, after the 1-1 in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, and has acknowledged that it will implement “a different idea” to be “more fluid in attack”.
“My legacy is already exceptional. We’ve been here many times, we’re not stupid and we know how important tomorrow’s game is. I tell the players to live it, enjoy the moment, we’re lucky. It’s in our hands, it’s up to us, we don’t have to do anything exceptional, just be ourselves. I have an incredible feeling with the team. Whatever happens, I’m grateful to the team for bringing us here”, he declared at a press conference.
In this sense, he insisted that what is important has already been achieved. “The legacy is that they’ve had a hell of a time over these years. In a long time they’ll remember that for five or six years there was a generation of players who scored a lot of goals, conceded few and won a lot by winning very well. What It is remembered, like a good book. In Europe, if we don’t win, they won’t remember us. But we’ve had a great time. In six years here I’ve had a great time,” he said.
“They brought me to Manchester City to do my best. We’ve won every title except this one, and we want it. We’re smart enough to win it. People say we’re close, but I think we’re far away. It’s a dream come true to be here. No one guarantees us that we will be here in the future, so we have to go for it,” he added.
In addition, the Catalan coach explained that the players should not be affected by the pressure from the club’s owners to win the ‘Orejona’. “No matter the pressure from the owners, they have to do it for themselves. They just have to play the best they can. There’s no need to tell them how good Madrid is, it’s a beast,” he said.
Regarding the duel at the Etihad Stadium, he stated that they must “play a much better game than last week”. “We have to perform well. We have to be relaxed and do what we have done in the last few games. We have to play better than at the Bernabéu,” he said. “The emotion is always there and it will be high, it has to be. To beat Real Madrid you need a better game plan, adjust things. We have to create more chances, get the ball to the forwards. It’s going to be a challenge”, continued.
Regarding who is favourite, the Santpedor coach believes that “the best and the one who deserves it” should win. “I don’t want luck tomorrow. The players have to put in an incredible performance to beat Madrid. I have an idea to do something different, to be more fluid in attack. At home we feel free, strong. I have lost seven semifinals, more than that I have won, in football there are many things that you cannot control”, he pointed out.
However, he did not want to influence much what this new idea entails. “We haven’t worked a lot because we played a couple of days ago in Liverpool. We’re not going to do anything different that Carlo doesn’t know about, we’re not going to change anything because we don’t have time and it wouldn’t make sense. You think about yourself and your opponent, it’s impossible ignore the defects and virtues of the opponent”, exposed.
“It must be us. Europe is very complicated; we won in Seville, but we didn’t play a brilliant game, but we haven’t lost either. The year we reached the Champions League final, we won all the games and drew only one in Porto when we already we were classified, and we lost the final. Tomorrow, at 8:00 p.m. in the United Kingdom, you have to do your best game, there is nothing else,” he continued. “I don’t think that what happened last year -4-3- will happen, but I would sign it right now. I don’t think it will happen, the game dictates. There are things in this competition that you cannot control. We have a plan and we will try to execute it”, Indian.
In another order of things, Guardiola acknowledged that he does not know why Real Madrid always responds so well in the ‘Champions’. “I don’t know, if I knew, I would try to have the method to copy it. The reason is that they have always had very high-level players. When Milan won the ‘Champions’ with Capello and Sacchi or we won them with Barcelona, it’s because we had players of a very high level”, he stressed.
“It doesn’t matter the competition or the year in which you face Real Madrid, they always have a great level. I have always faced this competition thinking much more about what we have to do, because you have to answer very well for yourself. We know to Madrid, we will try with our game to minimize its virtues”, he concluded.