Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Pep Guardiola wants to put talk of a historic quadruple to one side as Manchester City embark upon a season-defining month.
They have eight matches in April, which begin on Wednesday with a Premier League clash with struggling Cardiff at the Etihad Stadium.
Victory over Cardiff will enable City to leapfrog Liverpool and go one point clear at the top as they try to retain the title.
Then attention will turn to the FA Cup semi-final with Brighton at Wembley on Saturday before the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham next Tuesday.
The games are coming thick and fast and a single defeat could be fatal for their hopes of doing a clean sweep.
Guardiola is a keen student of the game and he recognises the enormity of what his players are trying to achieve.
“From my experience why should you play for the quadruple when it has never happened in this country?” he said.
“Legendary teams like Liverpool in the 1980s, Sir Alex Ferguson’s period at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, Arsene Wenger with Arsenal. Nobody did it. Why should we?
“We can’t forget that even the team that won the treble with Sir Alex Ferguson – an incredible team in 1998/99 – won the league with 79 points.
“In the semi-final of the FA Cup, they had 10 v 11 and Ryan Giggs ran past five or six and in final of the Champions League at the Camp Nou, everyone knows what happened there.
“To win the treble was so tough. They won the Premier League by one point, the Roy Keane red card and Dennis Bergkamp misses the penalty in the cup semi-final, and Bayern hitting the crossbar two times and then United scored with the last two corners (in the Champions League final).
“The spirit and desire to win the treble was there and of course the quality of everybody at United means they did it but it shows how difficult it is the way they won it.”
– Win or bust –
Guardiola knows the odds are against City winning all four trophies, given the luck required and also the quality of the opposition in the Premier League and Champions League.
“The treble has only happened once in all our lives,” he said.
“My players can think about it but the reality is Cardiff. It’s about winning the game, recovery and then, what’s next. That is the best way.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2TRmMKc
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