‘One is the king, the other is second or third king’ – Guardiola admits big improvement is needed for Man City to beat Bayern Munich or Real Madrid | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola admits his Manchester City side in their present form are not capable of winning the Champions League but did not write them off completely when he welcomes players back from injury.

City needed a win over Club Brugge to stand any chance of progressing into the play-off knockout round but found themselves a goal down at half-time through Raphael Onyedika’s goal.

But Mateo Kovacic struck after the break before Josko Gvardiol’s cross was diverted into the Brugge net by Joel Ordonez, and Savinho struck a late third to send City through.

The win means City will face either previous champions Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the play-off round.

And Guardiola admits City will need to be in much better shape if they are to progress.

“Right now, no,” he said when asked if City are capable of winning the Champions League.

“No, I’m so pragmatic. The reality is the reality. They have more experience than us and they, Madrid, maybe struggled but in the last games is back in the results and the way they play.

“Bayern Munich has played an incredible season so far with Vini (Vincent Kompany).

“If we have to play tomorrow it will be difficult but in two weeks, I don’t know how the opposition will be and the players.

“It’s okay, we are going to prepare well and we are going to be fit and we’ll try it and see what happens.

“We will try. I’m pretty sure we are going to create problems. I’m pretty sure that we are able to do something because these players have something special and we will try to do it.”

“We deserve it,” Guardiola added when asked about the difficulty of the draw. “If we can do it better, maybe we are luckier.

“I don’t know if they are happy to play against us. But it is what it is. It’s no complaints at all. Madrid or Bayern, we are going to face them.

“One is the king of the competition, the other is maybe the second or third king of the competition.

“They have the experience and the second leg is there but what I wish from the start of the season is to have the team back, players fit, is all I wish.

“I accept Rodri from the beginning but not the other ones and we played this competition with a thousand million problems.”