Pep Guardiola: Managing emotions and leadership crucial against Dortmund | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has called on his players to show leadership as he declared emotion will have a huge part to play in the second leg of Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund.

Guardiola says his side will need 11 leaders on the pitch at Signal Iduna Park if we’re to progress to the last four of the competition on Wednesday evening.

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It is something City have never achieved since the Catalan took charge, with our European ambitions ending at the quarter-final stage in each of the last three seasons.

Guardiola admits it is impossible to predict whether his team will navigate the rigours of knockout football better this time around, but, with the Dortmund tie finely balanced, he believes utilising the emotion of the occasion in the correct way will be vital.

“Right now, I don’t know,” he said, when asked at his pre-match press conference if his team are better equipped to respond to set-backs.

“They are human beings, people forget that. Human beings have feelings and situations happen. We know what we have to do.

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“If we want to win, we have to deserve it, we have to go for it. That is going to happen, the way we have done many times this season.

“Of course we have to control emotions, but sometimes you need emotions in the good way to win these games.

“We are not going to do anything special, just go there to win the game and each one will need to be a leader on the pitch.

“The guy who feels comfortable during the game take more responsibility to be more involved in the game.

“For the guys who are more nervous or quieter, do your job, play simple and maybe five minutes later you are ready to make a good performance. We need 11 player and the substitutes."

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Phil Foden’s late winner at the Etihad Stadium means City are in pole position ahead of the second leg but Marco Reus' away goal ensures Dortmund are very much still in the contest.

Guardiola acknowledged the tie is far from over, but is adamant his side will travel to Germany with the intention of winning the game rather than to protect our lead.

“I am pretty sure they will have chances because in the last 26 or 27 games they have scored,” he added.

“What we have to do is score goals and to do that we have to be effective up front and win the game.

“You have to try and execute our plan. It doesn’t matter what happens in the first leg, you have a chance in the second.

“Our idea is to go there, do as best as possible and let them feel we are not going to defend what we got here. We want to impose our game to win the game.”

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