Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, asserted that Lionel Messi’s’struggles’ last season against Barak Bakhar’s Maccabi Haifa had forewarned him of Red Star Belgrade’s caliber.
On Tuesday, City will host Red Star in their first Champions League match as the current champions.
The Premier League team, which defeated Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul in June to cap off a historic treble-winning season, is the competition’s defending champions.
Of course, City are a target that every other team wants now more than ever.
However, Guardiola’s team has a good chance to start their campaign with a victory when they take on Red Star on Tuesday.
Red Star is the reigning Serbian champion.
Guardiola has acknowledged the caliber of Red Star manager Bakhar, who oversaw Maccabi last season, and has stated that he is not taking the game lightly.
Guardiola claimed that the games, in which Bakhar was in charge of Maccabi’s two losses to Paris Saint-Germain in the competition last season, demonstrated the Israeli’s aptitude as a coach.
The City manager was quoted as saying: “I saw last season was at Maccabi Haifa and they have a difficult group vs PSG.
I caught a glimpse of what he did with Maccabi in their matchup with Messi and Mbappe.
The bravery and bravery made an impression on us.
Whatever happens, tomorrow will likely be very similar.”.
The fact that PSG defeated Maccabi 3-1 in Israel and destroyed them 7-2 in the rematch may surprise PSG supporters, of course.
Additionally, Messi and Kylian Mbappe each scored three goals in the two games.
In his pre-game press conference, Guardiola added: “Every season, we start the competition with the first game, and the goal is always to win.
“First the group stage, then the round of 16, try to win.
Even after our defeat, we remained unchanged. Red Star is all we can guarantee, depending on how well we perform.
We’re overjoyed to defend this throne.
You are not permitted to drop out of this competition.
The first step is tomorrow; we have always been strong at home.”.
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