Pep Guardiola hoping that Manchester City make it first-time lucky in Champions League final against Chelsea


Richard Jolly
  • English
  • Arabic

Pep Guardiola is dreaming of the one shot that could make Manchester City champions of Europe after admitting he never thought at the start of the season that this would be the year when they reached their first final.

During his playing days, the City manager was part of the Barcelona team who ended the club’s long wait to win their maiden European Cup, with victory in 1992 following campaigns in 1959 and 1986, when they were runners-up.

And rather than emulate them, Guardiola hopes City will join the ranks of teams who prevailed at the first time of asking on the biggest stage.

“When we won in ‘92, Barcelona lost before two times, some were unlucky, some of them, so unlucky,” Guardiola said. “Sometimes clubs need more finals to win the first one, in other clubs, it’s just one shot to be the champion. Hopefully, that will be the same.”

City were knocked out in the quarter-finals in the last three seasons but Guardiola said in autumn that he had a “good feeling” about his fifth European campaign with the club.

But he admitted they have surpassed his expectations, adding: “I never approach this competition like this, since I started at Barcelona. We are quite similar teams what we were in the past and when we were out. The margins are little details.

“This year it fell down on our side and a few years ago it was the opposite. It's not changed much. We are quite satisfied to get into the final but we know if you don’t have a huge desire to win it, a huge desire to know exactly what you have to do, then it will not be possible to win the game and win the Champions League.”

Guardiola has told his players there are still positions in his team against Chelsea on Saturday up for grabs. "The starting 11 is still not done, not yet," he said. City's top scorer Ilkay Gundogan, who sat out Sunday's 5-0 win over Everton with a minor knee problem, has pronounced himself fine and has not missed any training sessions.

Chelsea 1 City 3: player ratings

So Guardiola’s selection dilemmas are likely to revolve around whether to pick Oleksandr Zinchenko or Joao Cancelo at left-back and whether Rodri or Fernandinho should anchor the midfield.

But whereas Chelsea’s domestic season went down to the wire, City clinched the Premier League with three games to go. “It will be an advantage if we win, a disadvantage if we lose,” Guardiola mused. “I don’t know.”

Arguably City's best performance of the season came against Chelsea, with a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge in January, but they have lost twice to them since Thomas Tuchel took over.

Guardiola’s friendship with the German dates back to their time in the Bundesliga when they went out for dinner. “We talked football, football, football, football,” he recalled.

Guardiola had the better record in their meetings in their time in Germany and added: “Chelsea create problems for all the teams. It is difficult to stop them for the quality they have. The set-up of the team is wide in the sides, depth, and they are so close, the distances, the players in between, they are closer. They play really good in the pockets, incredibly good in behind.

“When they have the ball it’s difficult to control for the fact they are so close with the distances between players in the middle. The holding midfielders move perfectly between each other.

"At the same time, they make the pitch wide with the wing-backs and so deep. Congratulations on the two games they beat us, this is another competition, the final, and we will see what happens.”

MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

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Match statistics

Abu Dhabi Harlequins 36 Bahrain 32

 

Harlequins

Tries: Penalty 2, Stevenson, Teasdale, Semple

Cons: Stevenson 2

Pens: Stevenson

 

Bahrain

Tries: Wallace 2, Heath, Evans, Behan

Cons: Radley 2

Pen: Radley

 

Man of the match: Craig Nutt (Harlequins)

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December 2014: Former UK finance minister George Osbourne reforms stamp duty, replacing the slab system with a blended rate scheme, with the top rate increasing to 12 per cent from 10 per cent:
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April 2016: New 3% surcharge applied to any buy-to-let properties or additional homes purchased.

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March 2021: Mr Sunak decides the fate of SDLT holiday at his March 3 budget, with expectations he will extend the perk unti June.

April 2021: 2% SDLT surcharge added to property transactions made by overseas buyers.

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

 

 

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The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

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Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

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• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”

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• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%

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What drives subscription retailing?

Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.

The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.

The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.

The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.

UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.

That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.

Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.