Soccer

Guardiola calm in advance of key test for Manchester City

Premier League champions must beat Club Brugge to advance to the next stage of the Champions League

Club Brugge players at a training session at the Etihad Stadium in advance of the game against Mancherster City. Photograph: Bruno Fahy/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images
Club Brugge players at a training session at the Etihad Stadium in advance of the game against Mancherster City. Photograph: Bruno Fahy/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images
Jamie Jackson
Tue Jan 28 2025 - 20:50

Champions League: Manchester City v Club Brugge, Wednesday, 8.0 – Live RTÉ 2, TNT Sports 2 & Premier Sports 1

Pep Guardiola is approaching ­Manchester City’s must-win final Champions League group game against Club Brugge with “no emotion” to ensure his players understand precisely how to execute the manager’s game plan.

City are in 25th place, two points behind Stuttgart in the final qualifying position. So if Brugge are not defeated, Guardiola’s side will be knocked out of Europe. The City manager is therefore unsurprisingly approaching the match with cold-eyed intent.

“We’d like to score goals in the first 20 minutes – a lot,” he said. “But I think it’s not going to happen. The approach is now to read the game you have to play, for them [players] to do. Completely relaxed, not emotional, it’s to understand the game.

“After, we have to execute. I know in this type of game you have to put something special, something that has not been enough [from us] so far in the Champions League, to win the games. It’s simple, the question is simple. If we don’t win, we’ll be out. If we win, we’ll go through.”

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Guardiola is quite relaxed about the sudden-death situation City find themselves in.

“I’ve been in the Champions League for many years, this type of game I’ve played many times. Sooner or later you have to play this type of game where you win, you go through, you don’t win, you are out. So many,” he said.

“But it happened more in the further stages, not I would say right now [opening phase]. But we are here for the reasons that we know – that we are not good enough.”

City last failed to progress from the group stage of the Champions League in 2012-13. Guardiola was asked how the club’s finances would be affected if they missed out on the knockout stages this season.

“I don’t know, I didn’t speak with my CEO [Ferran Soriano] about that. In the last two or three or four years, always for the transfer windows, the budget is positive. The net spend has been amazing.

“Of course, I’m not naive enough to know how important it is financially for the club to go through in this competition. But sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. We want to try to go through, especially for sporting reasons.”

Club Brugge are 20th, three points above City. A point guarantees the Belgians a playoff place.

“I expect a tough, tough opponent,” said Guardiola. “When a team is 20, 21 games unbeaten, it’s because they are good.”

Oscar Bobb is available for City after a five-month absence caused by a fractured bone in the Norway international’s leg.

Brugge’s former Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet expects City to come out firing after a lacklustre league phase in which they have won just two matches having also fallen well off the pace in the Premier League in a surprising downturn in fortunes,

Mignolet said: “In [the] first instance, we are in a situation that we want to qualify, which would be an unbelievable performance and achievement for us. Now, we don’t have to look at the reasons why Manchester City are in the situation they are in.

“We only know that when you come to the Etihad it’s going to be a tough night, whatever situation they’re in. Maybe it might even be more difficult because of the situation they are in. But we’re not really looking at them. It’s really about how we can play our best, like we’ve done in the previous games, and hopefully that can be enough.”

Brugge arrive in Manchester on the back of, as Guardiola had noted, a 20-game unbeaten run in all competitions. They are currently second in the Pro League, three points behind leaders Genk, while their Champions League campaign has included victories over Aston Villa and Sporting Lisbon and a draw with Juventus.

The game will see Mignolet come up against his former international team-mate Kevin De Bruyne, the Belgian playmaker who has struggled with fitness and form this season. Mignolet said: “We all know Kevin, of course. As Belgians, we probably know him even better.

“It’s clear that he’s got a lot of qualities and that he can change the game with one pass. On his day, he will be the best midfielder in the world. We have to be careful of him. Manchester City have extraordinary players and Kevin is one of those.”