Pep Guardiola said he was ‘really pleased’ that Manchester City secured a top-eight finish in the Champions League’s league phase.
City avoided the play-off round after securing a top-eight position. A 2-0 win over Galatasaray on Wednesday night, courtesy of goals from Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, sealed three points and ensured the Citizens progressed directly to the last 16.
Guardiola’s side will now discover their potential last-16 opponents on Friday, with Benfica, Bodo/Glimt, Inter or Real Madrid the options.
“We’re really pleased to finish top eight considering how the Champions League has become,” Guardiola reflected.
“When I started 16 or 17 years ago, qualification was not as difficult. Today, every team is really, really tough, and I’m really pleased and hopefully we can arrive in March in our best.
“We started really well and had chances. We had no proper holding midfielders there. Jeremy and Omar were excellent, but we had incredible chances and maybe we [could have] needed more goals to qualify.
“But I’m really pleased because we have long weeks [until the Round of 16] and we need it. Not just that, that we’ve already qualified. Hopefully in that moment we can arrive better.
“Look how many incredible teams are out of the top 24 and how many are not in the top eight and still it’s the youngest team we have played in my years here in the Champions League.
“It’s a process to learn and hopefully Rodri, Marc and Semenyo will be back when we are there. That’s good news.”
