Pep Guardiola says that ‘he doesn’t think’ that he failed to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League while preparing for a mandatory game against Club Brugge.
The 2023 champions had a bad first campaign in a new format and entered the last day on Wednesday 25th.
Teams from the ninth to 24th years enter the play-off circle, so the defeat against the Belgian side would mean the end of their European season.
Opta statistics Give the City 63.8% chance of qualification – while Bruggge 93.9% is likely to make progress.
Pep 💬 (on John Stones) played 35 minutes [against Chelsea] And he played really well. Today we will see how it feels. pic.twitter.com/z0v7ff2hed
– Manchester City (@Mancity) 28 January 2025
Guardiola said, “The situation we have, we have to win the game and if not, we will not continue the competition and we want to go through to have another opportunity to play two more games and qualify for the next phase.
“It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity, a challenge and we’ll face it.
“It would not be a good idea to qualify for the club, but I am not thinking about it right now. I know about all worried people whether we are qualifying or not, I think we will do it.”
City were big consumers on the January market, spending around £ 125m on Omar Marmoush, Abducting Khusanov and Vitor Reis, but Guardiola says he doesn’t know how to go in progress in Europe financially affect the club.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t talk to the executive director.
“In the last two or three transfer windows has always been positive. I’m not naive enough that I don’t know how important it is for the club to go in this competition – it can affect the club, but of course we want to try to happen and go first from sports first reasons.
“In the last five or six years, the net cost in this club was amazing. The club said it was OK, the situation is a situation if we want to spend, which we can spend, and if not, we don’t spend.”
