Guardiola: Messi and Haaland are the secret of my success..and I’m not obsessed with the Champions League

Hours before the Champions League final, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola sat down to face the media and talk about the fourth Champions League final in his career.

Manchester City is preparing to face Inter in the Champions League final tomorrow evening at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, in search of a historic treble after achieving the English Premier League and the FA Cup.

Pep Guardiola said about the obsession with being crowned champions of the Champions League: “It is definitely a dream to achieve things. You must always have the right part of obsession and desire. Obsession is a positive word. It is a dream for all of us.”

Asked about being the best candidate to win, he replied: “Every game we play during the season we hear the same thing. We know how important the competition is. I don’t control people’s opinion, I just focus on what we have to do. I watched many Inter matches to know what we have to do in the end.” It’s a football game, the team that performs better for 95 minutes will win in history, Inter are bigger than us, it’s not important things, the important thing is tomorrow and that we do the best we can.”

And he continued: “I am not here to discuss Haaland’s average goals. If you have doubts about his performance, you are the only person I have no doubts about. Tomorrow he will be ready to help us win the Champions League.”

And he continued: “An inspiration for Arab youth who are looking forward to training? I have good players, I had Messi in the past, and I have Haaland now. This is the secret of my success. I am not kidding. I make them feel that they alone cannot succeed. Together we are a strong team. We have the same idea. They follow me here. People who don’t believe in me won’t be here. Every successful manager has strong skills and good players. A coach never scores.”

And about the lessons learned from the 2021 final, the Spanish coach said: “I would like to tell you the lessons, but I do not know that it is a different match, two years have passed, and different players two seasons ago. Tomorrow if we implement the plan it will be fine, we are ready and the players will give everything, knowing and respecting the opponents.”

And he concluded: “There are moments, there are no tactics, only desire, they are the masters of defense and you have to be patient. The most important thing is that when we look at the result of the 0-0 tie, we feel that we are losing, while the Italian teams believe that they are winning. The most important thing is that we be focused and stable to win.”