MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola came out on top in his duel with Zinedine Zidane on Friday and then reminded his Manchester City players that their 2-1 win over Real Madrid that took them into the Champions League quarterfinals was just “one step” in their quest for European success.
City capitalised on two shocking mistakes by Raphael Varane to get their goals, with Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus scoring either side of a Karim Benzema strike for the visitors in this last 16 second leg, played at an empty Etihad Stadium.
After winning by the same scoreline in Madrid back in February, before the coronavirus forced the competition into hibernation, Guardiola’s team advance 4-2 on aggregate to the final tournament in Lisbon. They will now play Lyon there in the quarterfinals next Saturday.
Guardiola would also have been delighted to claim the scalp of Zidane, who had never been knocked out of Europe’s elite club competition as Real coach, leading them to three consecutive victories between 2016 and 2018 in his first spell before returning to the job last year.
“It is important, we beat them twice. Zinedine Zidane never lost knockout games,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
“You see the calm and personality they play with, they are good, but we are here to try and win the Champions League.
“It is one step, if we think that is enough we will show how small we are. If you want to win you have to beat the big clubs.”
He added: “We are more than satisfied. The players will go to Portugal to try to make the next step. We know exactly what team we beat.”
The circumstances may be highly unusual, but this is still City’s finest Champions League result, their most significant victory in a knockout tie.
City’s best performance in the competition remains a run to the semifinals in 2016, when they went out rather limply to Real.
Now, with only two former winners still involved in Bayern Munich and Barcelona, City should very possibly be considered the favourites to win the competition in Lisbon on Aug 23.
If they do so, the victory would taste all the sweeter coming so soon after their successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport against a two-year ban from Europe for Financial Fair Play breaches.
However, Guardiola will be wary of Lyon, who took four points off City in the 2018/19 group stage. – AFP
