Pep Guardiola names 4 potential Champions League winners after Man Metropolis exit
With Manchester Metropolis now eradicated from the Champions League, Pep Guardiola has named 4 sides he believes may go on to win this season’s competitors.
Metropolis had been among the many pre-tournament favourites however have fallen wildly under expectations all 12 months and, after scraping via the reformatted league section, had been dumped out of the knockout spherical play-offs by present holders Actual Madrid.
Guardiola’s focus is now on qualifying for subsequent 12 months’s iteration of the event however, as he mirrored on his aspect’s early elimination, he backed 4 groups to battle for the trophy.
“After all Madrid are a contender, undoubtedly,” Guardiola started. “However there are different good groups round. It will likely be an attention-grabbing Champions League season. Madrid are all the time favourites for this trophy. There are different groups who’re having an excellent season however Madrid are all the time favourites.
“However there are different groups which can be enjoying very properly. Liverpool are having a very good season up till now, Barcelona are wonderful, Paris Saint-Germain, with my buddy Luis [Enrique] in cost, are on the march. However clearly, Madrid are favourites.”
Apparently, there was no point out of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who completed third within the group stage behind Liverpool and Barcelona.
With Metropolis out, consideration turns to sustaining their place contained in the Premier League’s high 4. Retaining their title for a fifth consecutive season is out of the query after six defeats in eight matches – the worst run of Guardiola’s profession – however 16 factors from the final 21 accessible has tremendously improved the season’s outlook.
Getting Erling Haaland again match and into the aspect will little question assist Metropolis’s trigger – the influence of the Norwegian’s absence on the Bernabeu painfully evident as they struggled to make any actual impression on Madrid’s backline.
