Pep Guardiola fears ‘big trouble’ looms for Manchester City

While pleased to reach the Champions League semi-finals, Pep couldn’t help but note the one downside.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola fears his players are at risk of burnout.

The Citizens kept their treble dream alive on Wednesday. They drew 0-0 with Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie, ensuring a 1-0 aggregate win. They are now into the semi-finals of the competition and remain top of the Premier League table.

Next up is an FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Wembley this coming Saturday.

"We are going to celebrate because it's the third time in Manchester City's history that we are the semi-finals of the Champions League."

Pep Guardiola revels in two mightily impressive performances against Atlético 👏

🎙 @TheDesKelly #UCL pic.twitter.com/q9pP1vvk7L

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 13, 2022

‘We are in big trouble’

In an interview with BT Sport after the match, however, Guardiola noted a burgeoning problem in his squad.

“Today we celebrate because it is the third time in Manchester City’s history we are in the Champions League semi-finals,” the Catalan coach said.

“But we can’t forget we played three days ago, traveled, came here, have a lot of injuries now and I don’t know what will happen in the next weeks.

“We cannot play all the time and score four or five goals, we are human beings – we come from a difficult game against Liverpool.

“We are in big trouble.”

Who could be injured?

The big worry for City was seeing Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne come off injured in Madrid. The former suffered what looked like a serious leg injury. Both players are likely doubts for this weekend.

On the other hand, Ruben Dias made the bench after six weeks out injured. The defender didn’t play on Wednesday, though. This suggests he isn’t fully fit and may still be a doubt to face Liverpool.