'Winning the Champions League with Man City is my dream' — Guardiola

'Winning the Champions League with Man City is my dream' — Guardiola

Ifeanyi Ufomadu 06:19 - 11.04.2023

Manchester City face Bayern Munich in a heavyweight UEFA Champions League quarterfinal and City boss Pep Guardiola has called winning the competition his dream.

Manchester City's path to a first-ever Champions League triumph is currently blocked by familiar faces. 

New Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel who engineered City's failure to win the competition in 2021 and Bayern Munich, the club Guardiola managed for three years. 

Tuchel aiming to stop Man City again

City lost the 2021 final 1-0 to Tuchel's Chelsea with the decisive moment coming courtesy of Kai Havertz who scored a fine breakaway goal after some sloppy defending.

Despite that disappointing outcome, Guardiola said on Monday that he did not lose sleep over the defeat for too long.

“I was sad but I congratulated him and Chelsea for the victory. It happened,” he said.

Thomas Tuchel with Pep Guardiola after Chelsea's Champions League triumph in 2021

 “I reviewed the game a month later. It was not as bad as I thought but at the same time it was not at all a good enough performance to win it.

"It was a tight, tight game like they always have been against Chelsea in that period so forget it and try again.”

Despite his enormous success with Barcelona, winning the Champions League in 2009 and 2011, the big prize has eluded him at Manchester City

He has tried and failed six times and on his seventh, he insists his team will continue to try like they always have. 

Guardiola on his Champions League dream

Guardiola said:

 “That is my dream, to live this again. To be here in front of you in a Champions League competition. We want to try like we try all the time but it doesn’t mean we are going to win.”

Big picture ahead of kick-off

This game surely promises to be intriguing with two master tacticians on show and two clubs that believe greatly in playing offensive high-energy football.

 Guardiola will be hoping his team can silence familiar foe, Thomas Tuchel.

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