Pep Guardiola delighted with City's performance in rout of Basel
City won 4-0 at Basel meaning it would take a miracle at the Etihad Stadium on 7 March for City not to reach the quarter-finals for just the second time in the club’s history
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Pep Guardiola was “delighted” with Manchester City’s performance in Basel this evening that puts them “almost” in the Champions League quarter-final draw on 16 March.
City won 4-0 at Basel meaning it would take a miracle at the Etihad Stadium on 7 March for City not to reach the quarter-finals for just the second time in the club’s history. Now City can focus on their other matches in March, including two games against Arsenal in five days and a Premier League tie with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on 4 March.
“It’s an amazing result in the last-16 of this competition,” Guardiola said. “The Champions League is 180 minutes, but we are almost there. I’m not saying it’s done, because in football anything can happen, but it’s an amazing result. I’m delighted, and now we prepare for Wigan.”
Guardiola said that it was never his expectation, going into this match, that City might kill off the tie in the first leg. “I wasn’t thinking of that, in my experience when you play eighth-finals [last-16], there is always the second game. The first step is to do better than last season [when City were eliminated at this stage by Monaco], then it’s about how we arrive.”
Now City can focus on their Premier League games at Arsenal on 1 March and at home with Chelsea just three days later immediately before the Basel return game, knowing that the league games in March could see them close in on the title. “It’s so important,” Guardiola said.
“We have to be focused but it’s Arsenal and Chelsea, and it’s so important to focus on them, and to take another step to the Premier League.”
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