Pep Guardiola makes Man City fitness admission ahead of Premier League title run-in
Pep Guardiola says his Manchester City players are 'exhausted' by competing in the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League this season.
Wednesday night's clash with Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter final was Man City's 48th competitive game thus far during the 2022/23 campaign. And having made it safely through to the semi finals Guardiola can expect his team to be playing at least 11 more games this season - 13 if they make it to both the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
Man City manager Guardiola was keen to lament the fixture congestion during his post-match press conference on Wednesday evening, stating: "We are exhausted.
"I don't know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final]. Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday. Three years in a row in the semi-finals of the Champions League."
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Guardiola's utterance will likely be music to Arsenal fans' ears, as they are set to compete with Man City for the Premier League title in the final few weeks of the 2022/23 season. The two clash at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday evening in what promises to be a title deciding game.
The City manager also took the time to assess his team's performance in the 1-1 draw with Bayern at the Allianz Arena, praising Erling Haaland in particular for his showing.
"We struggled in the first half. Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with Coman. We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.
"The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one."
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