Pep Guardiola has mentioned four teams that, according to him, can win the Champions League after Manchester City was eliminated by Real Madrid.
City was beaten 6-3 by Los Blancos, with Kylian Mbappe who yielded a hat trick when Madrid won the second stage of their play-off tie 3-1. The side of Carlo Ancelotti are the defending champion, who lifted the trophy for the 15th time last season, and Guardiola believes that they are the favorites to win it again this year.
He also mentioned three other potential contenders, but Arsenal was not there, despite the fact that they finished third in the competition phase. “Of course Madrid is certainly a competition,” said Guardiola after the exit of the city.
“But there are other good teams in the area. It will be an interesting Champions League season. Madrid is always favorites for this trophy. There are other teams that have a very good season, but Madrid are always favorites.
“But there are other teams that play very well. Liverpool has a very good season so far, Barcelona is great, Paris Saint-Germain, with my friend Luis [Enrique] The Mars are in charge. But it is clear that Madrid are favorites. “
It is the third time in four years that the city has been defeated by Madrid in a knockout draw, in which Guardiola suggests that this loss was the only one earned. “The best team won. They deserved it,” he admitted.
“This season we have not been so good – I felt that in the previous seasons we were better than Madrid, but this time not so. In this competition, quality always counts. This season Madrid is able to long for a long time [spells of] possess; They were dynamic, they are fast when they ran and they pressed well.
'What you have to do is accept and continue. Nothing is eternal. It was difficult to bring the 3-2 [first leg defeat] Here, but now we have to learn and accept that there is another, I don't know … 30 or 40 games that come [this season].
“We have to try to win the FA Cup, we have to try to end in the top four in the competition and we have to try to be back in this competition next season. I have very little to blame my team in terms of how they have played in the Champions League over the years.
“When we were eliminated by Madrid in the past, I felt that we were very close. We reached semifinal and finals. Tonight, when a team is sporty better than you, you have to accept and congratulate it.”
Arsenal will meanwhile be confronted with PSV or Feyenoord in the round of 16, after the Dutch giants and Juventus and AC Milan have eliminated.
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