By Lori Ewing
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Treble-chasing Manchester City may be on a quest for their first Champions League title but manager Pep Guardiola said claiming the trophy will not define his team’s legacy or his own.
“My legacy, our legacy is exceptional already,” Guardiola told a press conference on Tuesday, with a smile.”
City host holders Real Madrid in the second leg of their semi-final on Wednesday, following a 1-1 draw a week ago at the Bernabeu when Kevin De Bruyne scored a sumptuous long-range equaliser after Vinicius Jr’s equally brilliant first-half goal.
Guardiola guided Barcelona to Champions League titles in 2009 and 2011 and, while his City side have won the Premier League in four of the last five years – and could claim a fifth on Sunday – Europe’s elite club competition remains elusive.
City are potentially four wins away from a treble as they play Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3.
“My legacy maybe could have a book about it one day,” he said in Spanish. “Legacy is we’ve had a great time, played great football. The best legacy you can have is you performed well and played well.”
To that end, the 52-year-old Guardiola has told his players to soak in the thrill of the moment on Wednesday rather than get hung up on the magnitude of the occasion.
“We know how important it is tomorrow, maybe one of the most important ones. We can’t deny that,” Guardiola said.
“But I said to the players enjoy the moment, how fortunate we are, how incredibly lucky we are to be here… We’ll do everything, give everything.”
Guardiola said his team must play “much better” than the Madrid game, he would like his team to be more fluid in attack.
LEARNING MOMENT
City lost to Chelsea in their lone appearance in the Champions League final in 2021, which defender Kyle Walker called a big learning moment for the team.
What would a Champions League trophy mean?
“We have to just look over the road at Manchester United and what they’ve accomplished over the years,” he said. “And when you get compared to that team, they’ve won countless titles.
United have won the European Cup three times plus 20 English top-flight titles and in 1999 won an historic treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.
“(Our) club’s missing that one (Champions League), and I think for the owners, the amount of money that they’ve pumped into this club, the investment, we owe that to them,” added Walker.
Abu Dhabi company City Football Group owns the club.
“To get to the Champions League final against Chelsea and probably not performing as well as we do, we owe that to ourselves as well, to get some revenge for ourselves. But we’ve got a tough, tough opponent coming (Wednesday) to try and get past it to get to the final.”
Real Madrid have won the European Cup a record 14 times.
“As we’ve just seen before in recent years, it’s a final, anything to happen,” Walker said.
Inter Milan take a 2-0 aggregate lead into the second leg of their semi-final on Tuesday.
The final is on June 10 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)
