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Pep Guardiola makes Man City fitness admission ahead of Premier League title run-in.
Pep Guardiola claims that this season’s competition in the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League has left his Manchester City players “exhausted.”
The second leg of Man City’s Champions League quarterfinal match against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night was the club’s 48th competitive match of the 2022–23 season.
Guardiola can anticipate that his squad will play at least 11 more games this season after safely advancing to the semifinals, and 13 if they reach the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
Man City manager Guardiola was keen to lament the fixture congestion during his post-match press conference on Wednesday evening, stating: “We are exhausted.
“I don’t know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final]. Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday. Three years in a row in the semi-finals of the Champions League.”
Given that Arsenal will face off against Man City for the league title in the final few weeks of the 2022–23 season, Guardiola’s statement is probably music to the ears of Arsenal fans.
Next Wednesday night’s match between the two at the Etihad Stadium is predicted to be a title-deciding contest.
The City boss also took the opportunity to evaluate his team’s performance in the 1-1 draw with Bayern at the Allianz Arena, giving special praise to Erling Haaland for his performance.
“We struggled in the first half. Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with Coman. We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.
“The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one.”