Manager Pep Guardiola wants his team to remain “alive” in all three competitions once his players return from the international break.
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Manchester City have an important week coming up in different competitions. First, they entertain RB Leipzig in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 following the 1-1 draw in the reverse leg. Then, at the weekend, City have a tricky quarter-final assignment in the FA Cup sixth round against EFL Championship leaders Burnley. Besides, Man City are well and truly in the Premier League title race after sitting five points behind leaders Arsenal in the table.
Manager Pep Guardiola wants his team to remain “alive” in all three competitions once his players return from the international break. “It’s really important [to be competing for trophies],” Guardiola said in his pre-match news conference, as per the club’s official website. “It’s not just for a bad international break for the guys who don’t go to national teams, we want to be alive in three competitions. To have the pleasure of being in Europe and FA Cup and to be close to Arsenal.”
He added: “[The Champions League] is a lovely competition, so nice. Playing teams in another part of Europe, away from playing same teams and same stadiums in England. Of course, it’s special. It’s so nice to show our Club all around Europe. When I saw the draw I said Leipzig were a really good team. Napoli, Real Madrid, Liverpool – they are really good too – every team in this stage have qualities and strengths. Tomorrow in front of our people we have to impose ourselves and win the game. It’s easy, not how many goals, it’s just win the game and that’s what we have to do.”
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Manchester City star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is well aware of the difficult challenge at hand against a well-drilled RB Leipzig side in the round of 16 second leg tie of the Champions League. “The risk of underestimating them is not that big because I think we’ve played them now three times in the last two years,” he started.
“We already know what kind of team it is. High energy and quality. An intense team. They have that Red Bull DNA where they play a lot of players in the middle. They are very aggressive, they know how to make it a tough game and I think they have a lot of quality.” Even before facing Leipzig with Manchester City, De Bruyne has experience of playing them during his time in Bundesliga with his former club Wolfsburg.
“I played against them with Wolfsburg in the cup when they were in the second division and it’s pretty similar. Kimmich and Poulsen were still there,” he explained. “Obviously I’ve been away for a long time. They took a step from eight years ago from second division to playing top four and Champions League all the time. You can’t do this without having so much quality. So, I’m aware of what traits they have, but hopefully we’ll manage that tomorrow.”
