Pep Guardiola believes Manchester Metropolis will battle to beat a mounting harm disaster however inspired the English champions to bounce again in Tuesday’s Champions League journey to Sporting Lisbon.
Metropolis journey to Portugal after consecutive defeats to Tottenham within the League Cup and Bournemouth on Saturday, which ended an 11-month unbeaten run within the Premier League.
Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, who’s out for the rest of the season with a knee harm, leads a stellar solid of absentees in Guardiola’s squad that additionally consists of Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish and John Stones.
Kevin De Bruyne may make his first look seven weeks however is unlikely to begin, whereas Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Jeremy Doku and Savinho are additionally not totally match.
“You realize the state of affairs with Rodri, nominated the most effective participant on this planet,” mentioned Guardiola at his pre-match press convention on Monday.
“We all know we are going to battle, and we now have to simply accept that, and it’s superb.
“The video games might be troublesome; in earlier seasons it was clean. Private causes, accidents, we received six Premier Leagues in seven years. Issues change, we now have to simply accept that.”
Guardiola will come in opposition to considered one of his future rivals as Sporting boss Ruben Amorim takes cost of the Portuguese champions for the penultimate time earlier than starting his function as Manchester United supervisor.
The edges final met within the final 16 of the 2021/22 Champions League when Metropolis romped to a 5-0 victory in Lisbon and on combination.
“They’ve modified gamers however have similar supervisor and similar mentality,” added Guardiola on the problem Sporting present.
“Successful the league for first time in 20 years after which doing it once more final season exhibits what job he has completed.”
Bernardo Silva scored twice in Metropolis’s 5-0 win over Sporting two years in the past on his return to Lisbon, the place he started his profession at Benfica.
He urged Metropolis to not make excuses regardless of their harm woes.
“With a full squad we’re stronger, there is not any denying that. We’ve a whole lot of unbelievable gamers lacking,” mentioned Silva.
“We’ve not been in a position to depend on Kevin for six weeks. Rodri is out for the season and different gamers out shorter occasions. However we by no means discover excuses. This membership was by no means about that.”
Each side are unbeaten within the new Champions League format with seven factors from their opening three matches.
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