Manchester City “feel unstoppable” after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League, according to Jack Grealish, but Pep Guardiola disagreed, warning that “every team is stoppable.”
City advanced to the final after defeating Real Madrid 4-0 in the second leg of their semi-final, achieving a 5-1 aggregate victory.
City’s incredible success, which has seen them go 23 games unbeaten and won their past 15 at the Etihad Stadium, was simply too good for Real Madrid. Manchester City will face Inter Milan in the Champions League final on June 10 in Istanbul.
Grealish, who dazzled once more, added, “Unbelievable.” It’s so lovely to be in this moment. Many teams can’t compete with Real Madrid, but when we’re all together and competing, especially at home, we feel unstoppable.”
“I saw a stat the other day about how many Champions League games we’ve won at home compared to away, I couldn’t believe it. When we play here in front of our fans, we feel unstoppable. Even in the league, we feel nobody can beat us. You see what we’ve done to Bayern Munich, Leipzig and tonight, it’s unbelievable.”
Pep: It was one of the high points of my career.
Guardiola has now reached the Champions League final four times, with Carlo Ancelotti the only manager to do it more than once in the competition’s history. His sole final appearance for City ended in defeat to Chelsea, but his team is heavy favorites to face Inter Milan in the final on June 10.
Guardiola stated, “This is one of the highest [results of my career] considering the opponent, Real Madrid, in the Champions League semi-final.” We needed to perform well, and we did so, particularly in the first half. It was just fantastic.
“I had a feeling these last days that we had a mix of calmness and tension to play these kind of games. After 10 or 15 minutes, I had the feeling that all the pain of last season was there today. It was so hard and tough last season [against Real Madrid], when we played quite similar to how we played today.
When asked about Grealish’s “unstoppable” quote, Guardiola said: “I don’t like that, no. Every team is stoppable if you do what you have to do. It’s nice the players feel that, but football can change from one game to another. You have to stay calm. I would like to give the players two days off, but I cannot give them one because the Premier League is there.
