Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City team is “really exhausted” as they close in on a historic treble.
The Citizens qualified for the last four in the Champions League for a third consecutive year by beating Bayern Munich on Wednesday night. They face Sheffield United in the FA Cup tomorrow before a potential Premier League title with leaders Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday.
But speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, the Catalan warned: “We are really exhausted. I don’t know how we will recover. Now is a difficult moment. In football today, there is no team to rest. Arsenal have been running in the Premier League since September and in the Champions League there is no time to breathe and on Saturday we have the semi-finals of the FA Cup against Sheffield United and I don’t know how we will get there.”
But the Catalan claimed the best was still to come from Erling Haaland after he took his stunning tally to 48 goals in 41 matches this season despite missing a penalty in Germany.
“But when needed, he is always there,” said Guardiola. “A threat. We are talking about a boy. How old is he? 21-22? He has his future ahead of him. Yes, he is learning from what he is doing. He is an incredible machine, an incredible goal machine. He loves to feel the pressure. He has though shown his character, he wanted to take and score the penalty, but he will learn in future. He will be more sure and confident after this mistake. The finished Erling is really, really good. He is so young.”
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“The experience that we have in this competition, the players really feel it. The Champions League, we want to finish it really well.” This will mean getting past Real Madrid in the semi-finals next month, who beat City in the last four last year.
“Yes football is strange,” he added. “Last year we could have won 2-0 at the Bernabeu in the second leg, with that goal line clearance by Mendy from that shot by Grealish and instead we lost in extra time. For us it will be the third semi-final in three years. It seems incredible.
"For Madrid they are in their 11th in 20 years - well done to them! All the clubs in Europe have the feeling and know that if you want to win this competition, you have to beat Real Madrid. Before it was the same with Barcelona, but now it is Real Madrid.”
