Pep Guardiola says he’s ‘not enthusiastic about’ failing to achieve the knockout stage of the Champions League as he prepares for a must-win sport towards Membership Brugge.
The 2023 champions have had a poor first marketing campaign within the new-look format and go into Wednesday’s closing day in twenty fifth place.
The groups from ninth to twenty fourth go right into a play-off spherical so defeat towards the Belgian aspect would imply an finish to their European season.
Statisticians Opta give Metropolis a 63.8% likelihood of qualifying – whereas Brugge are 93.9% prone to progress.
PEP 💬 (On John Stones) He performed 35 minutes [against Chelsea] and performed rather well. We’ll see at present how he feels. pic.twitter.com/Z0v7FF2heD
— Manchester Metropolis (@ManCity) January 28, 2025
Guardiola stated: “The scenario we’ve got, we’ve got to win the sport and if not then we received’t proceed in competitors and we wish to undergo to have one other likelihood to play one other two video games and qualify for the following stage.
“It’s not an issue it’s a chance, a problem and we are going to face it.
“For the membership it could not be good to not qualify however I’m not enthusiastic about that proper now. I do know for all of the folks involved whether or not we are going to qualify or not, I’m considering we’re going to do it.”
Metropolis have been massive spenders within the January market, spending round £125m on Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis, however Guardiola says he doesn’t understand how failing to progress in Europe would have an effect on the membership financially.
“I don’t know,” he stated. “I didn’t converse with the CEO about that.
“Within the final two or three switch home windows it’s at all times been optimistic. I’m not naïve sufficient to not understand how essential it’s financially for the membership to undergo on this competitors – it could have an effect on the membership however in fact we wish to attempt to make it occur and undergo first for sport causes.
“Within the final 5 – 6 years the web spend at this membership has been superb. The membership stated OK ,the scenario is the scenario, if we wish to spend we are able to spend and if not we don’t spend.”