Man City is still not sure of Champions League football, but Pep Guardiola claims
Pep Guardiola has called on Manchester City fans to drag them across the line in the race for a Champions League place – from tomorrow.
The race for next season's Champions League could not be tighter, with City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa separated by just two points – the five teams fighting three places. City, currently fourth, is organizing the seventh placed villa tomorrow, where Guardiola describes the game as “a final” and encouraged the supporters of his party to push the team closer to their qualification goal.
Guardiola even claimed that City, who stopped the trophy in 2023, but did not make the last 16 this season, can go all the way and win again – if their fans touch the team.
“We need our people because I think our people will win the Champions League again next season,” Guardiola said. “Hopefully they can help us for the minute.
“Don't wait, because sometimes we are sloppy, sometimes we are not playing well, but it is now that we need them. We desperately need them to support ourselves, to make noise and always be there, because it is a last, definitely a final for us.
“And after Aston Villa it will be the game against Wolves and it will be another final.
“Then Southampton, because every point, every match, counts. It is a competition to qualify for the Champions League and you see both games they played against my friend Luis Enrique, against Paris St Germain – Wow! I was really, really impressed.
“They can play in a low block or not, but when they decide to move forward, with the weapons they have, with the speed they have, the set pieces and the way they organize, it is a final.”
Villa underlined their quality this season with progress to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which was eventually ended by PSG, even though the side of Unai Emery beat them 3-2 in Villa Park.
One player Guardiola knows that he will have to pay special attention to Villa Vooruit Morgan Rogers, who was in the city for four years before he came to Middlesbrough in 2023. This season Rogers has 14 goals, his versions for Villa who earns him a complete call from England, with Guardiola fully aware of his talent and the threat he will be for the city.
“He was here in the second team and sometimes trained with us,” said Guardiola. “We could see something that he could do it, but the impact he had in Villa – what a player. We definitely had an exceptional player here.”
A young person who has become a regular first team in recent weeks is 20-year-old Nico O'Reilly, who started the last four games of the city and scored in the last two. A midfielder, O'Reilly has shown his versatility by switching to the left, with Guardiola impressed by his adaptability and adulthood, despite his relative inexperience.
“The season is long, his impact has been good and now we have one game a week,” said Guardiola. “Nico has to recover and he has to see if he can play every three days, as Bernardo has proven whether Kevin De Bruyne has proven.
“I don't know if these young players are able to play three games a week, but I admire a lot that he plays in a position he has never played before.”
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