Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, has confessed that he is unsure how to stop Lionel Messi and his Paris Saint-Germain teammates Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.
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On Tuesday, the two teams will meet in the Champions League.
Guardiola stated ahead of the encounter that containing Mauricio Pochettino’s front three will be nearly impossible.
“I don’t know,” he said at a press conference on Monday. With this level of quality, I’m not sure what we can do to stop them.
They’re fantastic. Controlling this much skill all at once is quite difficult.”
Messi is yet to score for PSG since his summer move, but City boss Pep Guardiola believes it takes time for even the finest players in the world to adjust to a new team in a new league.
“They require time, which is often not provided to us,” Guardiola explained. “Of course, the quality is there. They [PSG] had excellent players and top coaches for many years. They are present in the French league, cups, and Europe.
We are very aware of how difficult it is. At the same time, knowing how good they are individually and together, we are attempting to go again.
This type of player [Messi] speaks for itself, in my opinion. You don’t need to describe Messi since he speaks for himself. What he’s accomplished is extraordinary.”
A year before he joined PSG, City was extensively linked with a deal for Messi. Guardiola has stated several times that he does not believe Messi would leave Barcelona and that it would be a surprise to see the 34-year-old leave Camp Nou.
It came as a bit of a shock to everyone, but it did,” he added. “You couldn’t have imagined it a few years ago, but it happened. You never know what will happen in football, and you never know what will happen in life. I’m confident he’ll be content in Paris.”