Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City still have “incredible things ahead” as he focuses on a trophy treble despite surrendering their Premier League crown to Liverpool.
Guardiola’s side will perform a guard of honour to their major rivals of recent seasons on Thursday after Liverpool ended City’s two-year reign as English champions last week. Kick-off is at 21:15 SAST.
A 23-point gap at the top of the EPL table allowed Jurgen Klopp’s men to win the title with a record seven games remaining and Liverpool are on course to smash more Premier League records set by City two seasons ago.
However, City could yet have one of their most successful ever seasons. Guardiola’s men have already retained the League Cup, are through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and have a 2-1 lead from the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Real Madrid.
“We lost the Premier League with seven games left and more than 20 points,” said Guardiola in a pre-match videoconference.
“The challenge this season was to try to win the Premier League again but what happened, happened because we were not as consistent as in previous seasons.
“Even doing really, really well, with the numbers Liverpool have done it was almost impossible. When that happened, all we can do is accept it. You can never win all the time, do well all the time.”
Manchester City vs Liverpool: Head-to-head
The graphic below shows the average stats for Manchester City and Liverpool this season – for their respective home (City) and away (Liverpool) matches.
