Winning Man City’s first Champions League title a ‘dream’ and ‘obsession’ – Pep Guardiola

 

Manchester City’s head coach Pep Guardiola said winning the club’s first Champions League title is a dream and obsession. City defeated Inter Milan in the UCL final by 1-0 after Rodri scored in the 68th minute of the game at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday night.

With this win, the Cityzens also completed the historic treble (winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League). Pep was roped in by City back in 2016 in order to help themselves savor success in Europe’s most elite football club tournament and Guardiola once again proved his mettle after suffering a few failures down the road.

The Spaniard added that winning against a potent team like Inter Milan completed their dream for which they have been working hard.

“It’s a dream, yes,” Guardiola said. “It has to be. To achieve things, you always have to have the correct level of obsession or desire. Obsession is a positive word for the desire to do it, but of course it’s a dream.

“We know how important it is. I don’t control what the people have opinions about, I just focus on what we have to do. I saw Inter’s games and we try to do our game. Everything finishes with a game and the team who performs best over 95 minutes will win.

“Inter Milan is bigger than us, in terms of history in this competition, and we are favourites to win the game, but what’s important is that, at 10 p.m. Istanbul time, we do the best performance possible and that can make the difference.”

Meanwhile, Erling Haaland was the star of the show in the Champions League as the lanky Norwegian scored a total of 12 goals in the tournament for Manchester City, which is the most for the club in the tournament. Guardiola revealed having players like Messi and Haaland has played a key role in his success as a gaffer.

“Have good players,” Guardiola said. “Have Messi, have Haaland, this is my success. I’m not joking.

“Let them think alone that they cannot do it, that together they make a strong team.

“Every manager who has had success has strong institutions and exceptional players. I’ve never scored a goal as a manager.”

Manchester City were dominant across the tournaments and they will look to carry the good show in the next season under Guardiola.