Diego Forlan: Manchester City fit well on Champions League stage thanks to Pep Guardiola

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. Reuters / Darren Staples

It has taken Manchester City a little time to adjust to life in the Uefa Champions League in recent years. They have made progress and reached the semi-final stage for the first time last season, but they looked a little star-struck playing against Real Madrid in the last four.

That surprised me because player-for-player, I think City are as good as the side who went on to be European champions in May. But then it takes years to become the best in Europe, the improvements come little by little.

City have done things gradually since their 2008 takeover, winning the FA Cup in 2011 — their first trophy for 35 years — then the Premier League in 2012 and 2014.

It is natural that the Champions League should be next — not that any Manchester United fans want them to win it because it is one trophy City have never won.

Judging by their superb win over Barcelona 3-1 this week, that nervousness has gone.

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The result and performance will give a massive lift to City and maybe their fans who seem to prefer winning the Premier League than the Champions League. The Premier League is probably the toughest domestic league to win because there are six or seven sides who are capable of winning it, whereas there are only three or four in Spain, Italy and Germany.

But City fans should be excited by the Champions League because it is the hardest competition of all, the one with the best teams in the world. Win that big cup and your team will be remembered forever.

Their win over Barcelona was wonderful to watch because it was an encounter between two teams only set on winning. City wanted revenge after playing quite well while conceding four in Camp Nou last month.

Barca go out to win every match they play. Those ingredients, plus all those top players and two managers who are close friends and know each other well, made for a tremendous contest.

Barca have Messi, the best player on the planet, plus Luis Suarez and Neymar, but I was not surprised by the result and it was only a matter of time before City beat the best by playing so well. Barca were missing a couple of players, but do not let that detract from an outstanding, attacking City performance. Every team is usually missing a couple of players and Barca have strength in depth. Unfortunately for them, they made the same mistakes which City made in Barcelona and were punished for them. Pep Guardiola had a chance for revenge and his forwards took it.

City appointed Guardiola because he is one of the best coaches in the world, with a proven track record of winning trophies by playing attacking football at the biggest clubs. He is smart and popular because of the football his teams play. He is also just come out of the worst run of his career where he received some criticism, but he stayed true to his beliefs.

As Guardiola pointed out to one journalist who questioned him, these beliefs have won him 22 trophies in seven years.

His football is all about attacking, about getting the most forward threat from every player, including his goalkeeper. It is brave, bold and brilliant.

He has never lived or played in England, but he seems to have settled quickly in Manchester. City are top of the league after 10 games, but he is one of the coaches — along with Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho — who will get time to do his job.

It does not matter if he does not win the Premier League this season, though his team are favourites to do so.

Playing at home was always going to be to City’s advantage, but that has not bothered Barcelona when the teams have met before. But several of City’s players are beginning to realise their considerable potential.

Ilkay Gundogan is playing very well and understands what Guardiola wants him to do. He is a danger behind Sergio Aguero, his timing at arriving in the box is faultless and the best teams need a player like that making runs from midfield. Gundogan can only improve if his manager trusts him tactically, because Guardiola is a genius with tactics.

Kevin De Bruyne is exceptional, too. He is still quite young but he really impressed me in the first half of the Manchester derby in the league at Old Trafford. Like Gundogan, he is a midfielder who is a threat in attack, as is Raheem Sterling. All are fast, which Guardiola likes.

I do not think Barcelona should be too worried. They are doing well in the Primera Liga and the Champions League. They are experienced, they’re in the routine of winning trophies, of peaking in March and April when the biggest games come. I still think they are the team to beat in world football, even though Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were the finalists in the Champions League last season.

In Manchester, Barca made mistakes and they lost a game of football. It happens. Barca have been exceptionally consistent for a decade and I do not see that changing.

I expect Barca and City to go through from the group and cannot see any chance for Celtic or Borussia Monchengladbach. They have both succeeded in pushing Barca and City. I do think that when City go through to the knockout stage they need to be wiser. Those two-legged games are totally different from the group games because you cannot afford to lose the first leg, whether it is home or away. When you get to that level, every team is capable of defending a lead — as Mourinho’s Inter Milan famously did against Guardiola’s Barcelona in the 2010 semi-finals.

At least Guardiola is unlikely to come up against Mourinho in Europe this season.

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