Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola acknowledges the increasing competitiveness of the Champions League but emphasizes that his sole objective is to secure qualification for the quarter-final.
City, the defending champions, enter the second leg of their last-16 clash against FC Copenhagen at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday with a 3-1 advantage from the initial encounter in Denmark, extending their unbeaten streak to 19 games across all competitions.
While Guardiola’s squad remains in contention for an extraordinary second FA Cup, Premier League, and Champions League treble, the Spanish manager is downplaying any discussions regarding the accomplishment of such a feat.
“It’s better to be here having already won the Champions League but like I said [the Treble season] is finished, it’s apart,” he said in his pre-match news conference.
“Once we are here, we have to win games and tomorrow we have the chance to be in the quarter-finals again and this is the target. Other than that, I don’t think too much.
“The only target is try to qualify tomorrow for the quarter-final. We are far far away, talking about these things [another Treble season]. We didn’t say last season until we won the final against Manchester United in the FA Cup, so we are at the beginning of March. Tomorrow we play Copenhagen. I am focused since yesterday afternoon, this morning and today on that.”
After last season’s triumph, Guardiola has won Europe’s leading club cup competition on three occasions, having previously won it twice with Barcelona, but he feels it is getting more difficult to achieve.
“It’s getting better and tougher. Always I had the feeling, when I arrived in Barcelona in the first years that we would arrive in semi-finals. Now to reach the semi-finals is so difficult. The teams are better, managers are better,” he added.
“Everything is even more difficult than when I was a football player. But at the end, the better teams always go through. When you play two good games, you have more chance to go through.”