Guardiola hails Liverpool’s Klopp for making him a better coach

[Oyedibu Fikayo Odunayo]

Guardiola hails Liverpool’s Klopp for making him a better coach
Pep Guardiola has opened up on how Manchester City’s heartbreaking Champions League defeat to Chelsea in 2021 paved the way for last season’s Treble triumph.

City were the favourites ahead of the all-English final in Porto, having dominated the Premier League title race and also claimed the EFL Cup.

But they lost their first-ever Champions League final 1-0 to Thomas Tuchel’s side thanks to Kai Havertz’s goal just before half-time.

City manager Guardiola learned plenty of lessons from that ‘disaster’ and would duly lead his team to European glory two years later, when they beat Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul.

City’s 2023 success was all the more spectacular because they’d already won the Premier League and the FA Cup to complete a historic triple.

‘You know what happened, we were the second-best team of Europe. The second-best team of Europe,’ Guardiola told the latest episode of TNT Sports’ ‘Moments That Made Me’ series.

‘We make an incredibly bad message when you arrive in the final of the Champions League and you don’t win, you are a loser, a failure, a disaster.

‘They want you to be a failure or a disaster but you cannot feel like you are a disaster, or the second-best team.

‘On margins they were a little bit better. Congratulations Chelsea, and move forward.

‘Maybe we needed to live that, especially in this club, to achieve it. I don’t have any regrets.

‘We lost it, I could have done many things differently but you are the second-best team in the world.

‘So that is why, little boys and girls, in any sport when people say you are not good, don’t believe it.

‘You know exactly when you are good. If you do everything to do it, it’s enough.’

Guardiola, 53, is aiming to lead City to back-to-back Trebles as they remain in contention in three competitions this season.

They play Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Tuesday night in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

In the league, they are up against Liverpool and Arsenal in the three-way tussle for the title and Guardiola also told TNT Sports how outgoing Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has made him better.

‘When Liverpool didn’t win the Premier League on 97 points [in 2018-19], they did everything,’ he said.

‘I will be completely honest with you. When I get out of here and leave here and I’ll remember my period personally here, always I will remember that the biggest rival and how incredible battles we had between each other.

‘The reason why I give incredible credit with the five Premier Leagues we won is because we were battling with unbelievable football club like Liverpool.

‘Incredible manager and his staff and incredible players. I will never forget these battles, never ever in my life.

‘It’s an honour, for all my career everybody knows Klopp made me a better manager and Liverpool made me a better manager. There is no doubt about that.’

Watch the UEFA Champions League quarter final, first leg featuring Real Madrid v Manchester City exclusively live on TNT Sports 2 from 7pm on Tuesday 9th April