Pep Guardiola makes Arsenal and Liverpool claim after Man City’s Champions League exit

Pep Guardiola believes Arsenal remain the best team in the Champions League and claims Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool has been the ‘biggest challenge’ of his career.

Manchester City crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night as they were beaten 2-1 at home by Real Madrid, who also secured a 3-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu last week.

Guardiola’s side now have the chance to win their first trophy of the season this weekend as they play Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

And following his side’s Champions League exit, Guardiola believes Arsenal head into Sunday’s Carabao Cup final as the favourites.

‘We will challenge against the best team in England, so far, the best team in Europe, look at the results in the group stage, they have been the first, they’ve maybe lost three or four games this season,’ Guardiola said after City’s defeat to Real Madrid.

‘It’s the best, challenge them how we are, compete with them, we’ll have to see, after one or two weeks we play them in the Premier League and see. Football is that.

‘Sometimes they are better so it’s a good mirror to see what we have to do beat them. It’s just a game, we’ll prepare, try to compete and see who we are.

‘In the end the results have not been good, except against Newcastle [in the FA Cup], but I’ve had the feeling we are an extraordinary team, we have many, many good things that I love to watch but we are still not complete, we are not aware in certain moments and departments that we have to be more clinical and still we are not.

‘My feeling is that it is a question of time, that happened when I arrived here in my first season, it needs a bit of time.’

Guardiola also dismissed the suggestion that beating Madrid in the Champions League has been the biggest challenge of his career.

‘No, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool was my biggest challenge,’ Guardiola said.

‘You almost don’t realise what it was like to face Liverpool. Those games were a great learning experience for the team, because to play a team like us who had not been in the competition 12 or 13 years ago, and the generation we had, they had won those games sometimes, Real Madrid have beaten us, we’ve won some, we’ve had great times as well, but I think the teams we’ve played against also know they’ve played us too.’

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