Pep Guardiola says beating Barcelona can transform Manchester City future
Pep Guardiola claimed Manchester City’s enthralling defeat of Barcelona would prove the foundation for future Champions League success and hasten the club’s process of competing alongside the finest teams in the world.
City ended a run of five successive Champions League defeats against Barcelona in stunning style as two goals from Ilkay Gündogan and a Kevin De Bruyne free-kick overturned Lionel Messi’s 16th goal in 14 matches against Premier League teams. The victory, combined with Celtic’s draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach, means City can qualify for the last 16 with three points in Germany on 23 November.
Guardiola insisted his team played better with a full complement of players at the Camp Nou a fortnight ago than in the opening 38 minutes at the Etihad Stadium. But having capitalised on a Sergi Roberto error to equalise through Gündogan, and threaten frequently against a weakened Barcelona defence in the second half, he viewed the transformation as a potential turning point in City’s possibilities on the European stage.
“If you talk about the first 38 minutes, we are not able to compete against the best teams,” said the City manager. “This club was 25-30 years out of Europe while Barça, Real Madrid, Bayern and others were playing every year. We need time, the people don’t give us time but the club give us time.
“We played long balls because we are not ready to keep the ball. We are three or four months into playing a different way, Barça have been playing their way for 25 years. We try and now we realise that we won against the best team. For the future generation of players who come here they are going to realise: ‘Wow, these guys are able to beat the best team.’ It is the same when the group of Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany won the Premier League twice so the players who come now know they have to do that. You need 10, 15, 20 years to stay there. We are going to reduce that time and create nights for the Manchester City fans like we did today.”
Both Guardiola and his Barcelona counterpart, Luis Enrique, agreed Roberto’s wayward pass and Gündogan’s resulting equaliser was the turning point of an open, sometimes chaotic contest. “For the first 38 minutes we saw the best team in the world,” the City manager claimed. “They changed their centre-backs to make diagonal balls to the full backs and we were in real trouble. They have the chance to score the second goal and, if they had, the game is done, finished. But football is like this. Our goal changed everything for our mood. The players realised the bad moment is over.”
Luis Enrique, who was without the injured defenders Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba, plus the suspended Jérémy Mathieu, concurred: “I think it was one of the best 40 minutes we have played, particularly on a stage like this against a top-quality rival. The first few minutes we played really well. It is a shame after the error we made for the first goal, from then on we had a bad time.
The Guardian
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