Rio Ferdinand has appeared to confirm that Pep Guardiola sought him out after the Champions League semi-final to remind him of a text message sent ahead of the clash.
Guardiola’s side blew away defending champions Real Madrid 4-0 on Wednesday night. It sets up a mouth-watering final against Italian giants Inter in next month’s showpiece event in Istanbul. Two goals from Bernardo Silva before the break had put City in control on the night before an own goal from Eder Militao and a fourth from Julian Alvarez wrapped the game up.
It sets up City’s second ever Champions League final – as they aim to go one step further than their showpiece defeat to Chelsea two seasons ago – and extracted revenge over Madrid, who eliminated them in dramatic circumstances at this stage of the competition last campaign.
While City were favourites for this clash, there remained a significant possibility that they would fall short to the competition’s most successful ever side. However, BT Sport pundit Ferdinand explained how Guardiola had contacted him ahead of the match to express his confidence of a victory.
Ferdinand told BT Sport: "He texted me, Pep Guardiola, before the game. I said, 'Good luck'. He said, 'Listen, believe me, we beat them two years ago, we’ll beat them again - believe'. I said, 'I believe you, I hope you do it'."
Ferdinand's story matches up with Guardiola's antics at full-time. As his players made their way off the pitch, Guardiola was seen pointing at Ferdinand and shouting "I told you". It's fair to assume he was talking about those text messages.
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Ferdinand even quote tweeted video footage of the incident onto his timeline after the match, quoted with the eyes-looking emoji, appearing to confirm the assumption.
Jubilant City boss Guardiola told BT Sport: "At home we feel very comfortable with our people. I had a feeling we had one year of pain in our stomach with what happened last season, but today everything went out. It was so painful last season, when people said we lacked character, now we're showing how special they are.
"I've said many times, we don't have to comeback from 3-0, just be ourself. We beat them two seasons ago, last season then happened, but the game this season was similar to last season. Today from minute one, we had the feeling that we were ready, so we were calm mentally. I didn't feel nervous or tension, I had the feeling we were ready to produce a good performance."
