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‘Anything can happen’ – Guardiola braced for Lyon challenge

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City
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Pep Guardiola expects a close game against Lyon and warned Manchester City the new UCL knockout format could be their undoing.

Guardiola has already collected eight pieces of domestic silverware since taking charge of City in 2016, but continues to fall short in the Champions League.

The Citizens boss reached the quarter-final stage for the third season in a row following last Friday’s 4-2 aggregate victory over Real Madrid in the last-16. However, he’s never progressed any further before.

Such is Pep’s dismal record in the competition that Rio Ferdinand believes he cannot be judged as a success. The Manchester United legend argued that City would’ve had domestic success without him anyway. Therefore, he can only be judged on his achievements in Europe.

But this campaign could be a turning point for Guardiola. Not only are City regarded favourites to win the Champions League, but they’re widely expected to come out on top against Lyon.

Although Guardiola refuses to drop his guard against the team that eliminated Juventus in the previous round and showed promise against Paris Saint-Germain in the Coupe de la Ligue final.

“Anything can happen,” warned Pep on the club’s website.

“It’s a different competition. It’s a knockout competition. It’s a final at every stage. We are ready to do our best performance to go through,” Guardiola asserted.

“The pressure is always there, we try to do our best like the other teams. We saw how tight it was in the last two quarter-finals, tomorrow will not be an exception.

“We saw Lyon’s last games against PSG and Juventus. We know them quite well. They are incredibly organised and so aggressive. They are so fast up front, with quality in the wing-backs.”

“They are a top team. It’s the quarter-finals – we cannot expect anything else. It is not going to be easy.”

“It’s a final so it’s one game. We’ll try to avoid mistakes so they can’t punish us. The pressure is always there to do our best.”

“In a knockout game, anything can happen. It’s difficult to beat the big teams over two games, but in one game anything can happen.”

Should Guardiola’s City progress, then either Barcelona or Bayern Munich await in the semi-finals.

Unfortunately, though, Sergio Aguero will be absent for the Premier League giants in Saturday’s showdown with Lyon in Lisbon.

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