MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will embrace the “challenge” of Wednesday’s must-win Champions League clash against Club Brugge and is confident they will make the knockout stages.
The Premier League champions must beat last season’s Belgian league winners at the Etihad to progress to the play-off stage, involving teams ranked from ninth to 24th in the league phase.
The top eight teams automatically qualify for the round of 16, which takes place in March.
City endured a horrific run of just one win in 13 games in all competitions from October to December, which threatened to completely derail their season.
Guardiola’s men appear to have turned a corner in the Premier League, winning four of their past five games to climb back into the top four.
But lingering problems were exposed last week as Paris Saint-Germain battled back from 2-0 down to inflict a damaging 4-2 defeat on the 2023 European champions.
Guardiola has never failed to reach the Champions League knockout stages in his career as a manager and he said Tuesday he was confident his side would progress.
“It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity, a challenge, and we will face it,” he told his pre-match press conference.
He added: “I expect a tough opponent. When a team is 20 games unbeaten (the run is 21) it is because they are good. There are no secrets about that.
“They beat Aston Villa, (against) Juventus, Milan they played good. Celtic... they did really well. Different variations in the build-up. We have to read well what we have to do.
“But every team — Manchester City included — has weaknesses. You have to find them and punish them.”
Guardiola appeared frustrated when quizzed on the potential consequences of an early exit from the Champions League.
City are presently 25th in the league table after just two wins in their seven games.
“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,” he said.
“But, of course, we want to try to go through, especially for sporting reasons.”
The 54-year-old Catalan said he had faith the pressure of the situation would bring out the best in his players.
“I know they want it, I know how focused they are, and I don’t have doubts that we will perform what we have to do to go through, but with football, you never know,” he said.
Norway midfielder Oscar Bobb is in contention to feature against Club Brugge for the first time since August but new signings Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov are all ineligible.