Shakhtar know us well, and we know them well
Monday, November 25, 2019
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Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola shared his expectations ahead of the match vs Shakhtar
- Pep, could you just give us an update on exactly what the situation is with Aguero and how long you’re expecting him to be out?
- He’ll be out for a few games – I don’t know exactly. It will be a few weeks, exactly how many I don’t know. He has a tendon problem in front - so it will be a few weeks out.
- We’ve just heard from Gabriel Jesus – obviously, you are expected to field him for Sergio Aguero. How does he, as a young striker, cope with that pressure when he has to have these periods in the team when he knows he’s going to be the main man?
- You know, it’s so difficult to find a player, a human being – who has such incredible achievement like Sergio and be humble like he is. It’s not easy. It’s not easy for Gabriel, but he is also so humble and accepts the situation. I understand that, and the important thing is his training. He never misses or fails one training session due to bad condition or bad behaviour. He’s an incredible guy.
- What can you say about the progress of the Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko and about his role in your team?
- Well, now, unfortunately, he’s injured, he is a young player - we loaned out him in Holland, but he didn’t play much and came back. We wanted to loan him again, but he wanted to stay, he trained incredibly hard and convinced us to let him stay and extend his contract. He can play in several positions. And yes, I’m happy to have him.
- You need a point from the last two games. How do you see the game tomorrow going ...
- The position that we have is good, we have 10 points. So, tomorrow we have a chance to close the group stage at home against Shakhtar. We know them quite well, they know us quite well. Of course, we’re going to prepare. We came back in a so demanding game two days ago, on Saturday, against Chelsea, and we’ll see tomorrow how’s our physical condition and the way we have to play the game, but we will try to do our best to go to Zagreb with the job done. So we’ll try to win tomorrow.
- He’ll be out for a few games – I don’t know exactly. It will be a few weeks, exactly how many I don’t know. He has a tendon problem in front - so it will be a few weeks out.
- We’ve just heard from Gabriel Jesus – obviously, you are expected to field him for Sergio Aguero. How does he, as a young striker, cope with that pressure when he has to have these periods in the team when he knows he’s going to be the main man?
- You know, it’s so difficult to find a player, a human being – who has such incredible achievement like Sergio and be humble like he is. It’s not easy. It’s not easy for Gabriel, but he is also so humble and accepts the situation. I understand that, and the important thing is his training. He never misses or fails one training session due to bad condition or bad behaviour. He’s an incredible guy.
- What can you say about the progress of the Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko and about his role in your team?
- Well, now, unfortunately, he’s injured, he is a young player - we loaned out him in Holland, but he didn’t play much and came back. We wanted to loan him again, but he wanted to stay, he trained incredibly hard and convinced us to let him stay and extend his contract. He can play in several positions. And yes, I’m happy to have him.
- You need a point from the last two games. How do you see the game tomorrow going ...
- The position that we have is good, we have 10 points. So, tomorrow we have a chance to close the group stage at home against Shakhtar. We know them quite well, they know us quite well. Of course, we’re going to prepare. We came back in a so demanding game two days ago, on Saturday, against Chelsea, and we’ll see tomorrow how’s our physical condition and the way we have to play the game, but we will try to do our best to go to Zagreb with the job done. So we’ll try to win tomorrow.
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