The Catalan Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, said that his team is not the “best in the world” and that he considers Chelsea and River better. However, in the midst of his high praise for Marcelo Gallardo’s team, the Spanish coach made a mistake by not remembering that River is not the current Copa Libertadores champion.
“We are not the best team in the world. The best is Chelsea, they won the Champions League. And also River Plate, who won in South America,” Guardiola explained at a press conference after City’s 2-0 victory over Brentford. for date 24 of the Premier League. But when he realized that Gallardo’s team was not the defending champion, which is Palmeiras, he minimized the question: “The important thing is to win the next games, these things don’t matter about who is the best. I don’t care.”
Guardiola assured that his objective does not go through the immediate result, but to consider long-term goals. “I want to be happy and try to play better every day. We are in a good position, with 60 points. We have a long way to go to fifth to be in the Champions League next year. That is the main goal in the Premier,” said former coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
With the win over Brentford, Manchester City reached 60 points and leads the Premier League, followed by Liverpool (48 points and two fewer games), Chelsea (47), West Ham (40) and Manchester United (fifth with 39).
With that reassuring lead in the local league, Guardiola is focused on the Champions League as the round of 16 tie begins next week. “We told the players: ‘food, rest and training’. In three days we have another away game. We have to travel to Portugal to play against Sporting Lisbon and they must be ready”, he concluded.
Regarding forward Julián Álvarez, who was bought by City but will stay at River until the middle of the year, Guardiola had said that “he could be with us right now, but we already have many players in that position and I don’t like that. The best for him it is that he stays at River Plate, where he is doing very well”.