Guardiola appeals to players' souls in bid to win Champions League for Manchester City

Pep Guardiola gave an unequivocal rallying cry on the eve of Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final against Lyon. “Tomorrow [Sunday] is the time to show, to be ourselves,” the City manager said. “What I want to see is my team, our team, being who they are and do everything that they do in their soul and in their minds and after that the football will dictate if we deserve it or not.”

Strength of mentality – he also spoke of “the head, the spirit” – was a strong theme and it was interesting that in the Champions League, of all competitions, he chose to elevate that above tactics, ability and other qualities that shape elite sport.

Guardiola knows from experience. He also knew that he would be asked, given he has not won the Champions League since 2011 with Barcelona and City have never won it, of its importance now that there is only one previous winner left and therefore a far greater chance of a new name being added to the trophy.

Not just that, of course, but the accusation that Guardiola has, in the intervening years, often been guilty of another mental factor – over-thinking his team selections and tactics and being undone. That appeared to happen in three consecutive semi-finals defeats with Bayern Munich, and with City not even getting that far in their past three campaigns under him. It is an accusation he hotly disputes.

“Every year it is the same question,” Guardiola said. “The pressure is always there. We try and do our best, like all the other teams. We are here. We prepare to go through, but there are opponents and we have seen how tight the two [quarter-final] games have been – Atalanta versus PSG and Atletico Madrid against Leipzig, so tomorrow will not be an exception.

“It’s one game, try to avoid mistakes, because this competition punishes and that’s all.”

The fact that under this unique “final eight” format the quarter-finals and semi-finals have been reduced to one-off matches in a tournament-style in one city appears to fascinate and maybe encourage Guardiola. It felt, as he spoke, that it might suit him better with the admission that in previous years he had had “one eye” on the second leg of knock-out ties (which possibly explains the tinkering?)

“When you play the first leg always you have one eye on the second leg so with the FA Cup or Carabao Cup we are used to playing just one game, it’s a final, and the players play a lot this kind of game,” Guardiola said.

“There is no second chance. It is in/out. You go back to Manchester or stay in Lisbon. It’s what it is. It’s completely different and the approach is completely different.”

It should be noted that although this is a quarter-final and with a semi-final to come, Guardiola’s determination to treat it as a “final” bodes well given he has lost only one of the 14 finals in which he has managed a team – and that was the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid nine years ago. It means that for all his remarkable record of winning leagues – regarded as a far better measure of who are the best team – he does well in big one-off ties.

Defeating Real Madrid home and away in the last 16 has also led to expectation – not so much in England but around Europe – that City are now the favourites to win the Champions League.

“Of course it was so important to beat the king of this competition, but when you play this competition, just one game, just one game, anything can happen,” Guardiola insisted. “In this competition there is not a favourite.”

Decamping to Portugal, and basing themselves in the coastline resort of Cascais outside Lisbon, appears to have suited City and Guardiola, who even found time to praise the quality of Portuguese wine that is being enjoyed after working hard.

“All I can say is the way they [the players] have behaved in the last two or three weeks – I would say since lockdown but especially in the last two or three weeks – they are incredibly focused,” Guardiola said.

“The format is like what it is because of the pandemic situation. It’s adapting every day for the new protocols and new things and we did it and now we are here.

“So, we are incredibly well here in Portugal. We have eaten good and drunk a good wine in the night. We have worked a lot and are prepared.”

Lyon will be no pushovers. They took four points off City in last season’s Champions League group matches and although they are not as strong this campaign – having lost the likes of Tanguy Ndombele – they are extremely well organised and difficult to break down, as Juventus discovered in the last round.

It also does not perhaps suit City to be the favourites although, despite his relaxed demeanour, Guardiola knows that not reaching the last four will undeniably be regarded as a serious failure in a campaign that would leave his club with just the Carabao Cup as a trophy.

Guardiola confirmed that Sergio Aguero would miss the tie as he remains in Barcelona recovering from knee surgery.

It may be that the 32-year-old is able to join up with the squad if they overcome Lyon and remain in Lisbon for the semi-final on Wednesday.