Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will rise to the occasion in their crucial UEFA Champions League showdown against Paris Saint-Germain after rebuilding their shattered morale with a 6-0 demolition of Ipswich Town.
Guardiola’s side are languishing in 22nd place in the 36-team Champions League table with two games left. PSG are in even worse shape, one point behind City in 25th.
With the top 24 clubs going through to the knockout stages — the first eight automatically reach the last 16 and the sides from ninth to 24th face a playoff — the stakes could not be higher when City travel to Paris today.
Photo: Reuters
Fortunately for City, they were able to warm up for the blockbuster clash by recording their biggest English Premier League win since thrashing Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline in 2022.
Phil Foden scored twice, while Mateo Kovacic, Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and James McAtee were also on target at Portman Road on Sunday.
Such was their dominance, Guardiola was able to replace Foden, Haaland, Kovacic, Kevin de Bruyne and Manuel Akanji in the second half to keep them fresh for the PSG game.
“After four or five nil I had my eye on Paris,” Guardiola said. “We have two finals left, by winning two we qualify, winning one there’s a big possibility. We have to get the points because we created problems ourselves, especially with Feyenoord, even the game we lost in Lisbon, but in that moment we had a lot of problems. We could not compete the way we want for many reasons. Hopefully we can continue in Paris for the next game.”
After winning the Champions League for the first time in 2022-2023, City bowed out in the quarter-finals on penalties against Real Madrid last season.
In keeping with a turbulent season that sees them trailing 12 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, Guardiola’s men have endured another roller-coaster ride in Europe.
A woeful 4-1 defeat at Portugal’s Sporting, a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord — in which they blew a three-goal lead in the closing minutes — and a 2-0 loss at Juventus have left them clinging to a top-24 place by their fingernails.
City’s steep decline has been a huge shock after four successive Premier League titles and six in the past seven seasons.
Guardiola has appeared drained and depressed by City’s struggles, at a loss to solve the problems that have beset his team, but he claimed their swaggering win at lowly Ipswich showed they are finally approaching peak form at last.
“For a long time we didn’t perform in the way we have done and the most important thing against Ipswich was obviously the result, but also the fact they realized what we were. For a long time, for many reasons, we weren’t,” Guardiola said. “The important thing is realizing: ‘Oh, when we do this, OK, we can compete or we can be a team enjoying what we like to do.’ We are back to doing things that define this team for the last 10 years. Hopefully the players can feel it.”
With three wins in their past four games and unbeaten in six matches, England forward Foden is emblematic of City’s renewed confidence.
After a difficult spell earlier this season, Foden has five goals in his past three league games.
“We talked many times over the last month or weeks,” Guardiola said. “He was a completely different boy at the beginning of the season with a few problems, because they are human beings and sometimes in a long career you have a setback, it’s normal.”
“His biggest quality is that around the box he has goals in his blood, his bones. He can be a one-club man and finish his career here,” he said.
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