The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League gave us a high-quality game, a much-awaited clash between Julian Nagelsmann’s Bayern Munich and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
The German coach, present at a press conference before the trip to Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, returned to this difficult double confrontation which awaits his team: “We have examined it with my staff. It is a difficult draw. If we manage to win the title, you can’t say we were lucky with this draw. We already had a very strong group, and we came across PSG and now City. A possible semi-final against Real would be a great moment. Real had a similar journey last year.”
Excitement and the desire to do well characterize Nagelsmann before meeting a team that Bayern have not played in the Champions League since 2014: “I take a lot of energy from this draw. We will prepare well. We can not wait to be there. I saw a lot of Guardiola’s matches at Barcelona, but also at City or Bayern. I never copied anything from another coach. Pep’s football design is very attackinghis teams have a lot of ball possession. I have always enjoyed watching his matches.“
The 35-year-old coach was also asked about le monsters Erling Haalandauthor of a quintuple against Leipzig in the round of 16 second leg: “He is an exceptional player. He has extreme qualities in terms of speed and physics. But we also have very good attacking players, City have a lot of other good players too, it’s not just Haaland.“