Premier League run-in ‘massively important’, says Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says City are now fully focused on finishing the Premier League season strongly and qualifying for next year’s Champions League.

Wednesday’s elimination from Europe means we have the Premier League and FA Cup left to compete for before the summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.

We currently sit fourth in the top-flight with 44 points from 25 games and know we’ll play Plymouth Argyle in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

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While Guardiola accepts that the defeat at Real Madrid proves we have not been at our best this season, the boss believes there’s still plenty to play for over the coming months.

“We are in a not bad moment," he began.

“If you see Madrid, they were the better team and are a better team right now, but I had the feeling in recent years in the Champions League we can compete with any team.

“In previous seasons against that team - we feel it they feel it - we were there and, in many aspects, better than them. This time we couldn't go through.

“Look now with two central defenders out for two months. This period in the Premier League is now massively important for us.

“We lost 5-1 against Arsenal but we played very well for 60 minutes. We were not stable.

“The games are different, strength of the opponent is different. We need to try and stay there and qualify next season for where we were on Wednesday.”

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City host Liverpool in a 16:30 (UK) kick-off on Sunday 23 February, with the visitors currently in pole position to take this year’s title.

After that, we will travel to Tottenham Hotspur next Wednesday before the fixture load lightens a little following the Champions League exit.

Guardiola insists the tough run of fixtures throughout February must not be an excuse.

“The schedule is the schedule. I never complain about that. Sometimes you have difficult ones. We play this one, then Spurs.

“The time between games after that will be six, seven days, which will be good to recover player and prepare.

“And we will see what we can do over the final months of the season - we will give our best.”

City v Liverpool app coverage

Our official Man City app allows you to follow all of the action from Manchester in one place.

Minute-by-minute text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre two hours before kick-off, while our Matchday Live show will begin at around 15:15 (UK).

David James and Paul Dickov will be the guests on the latest Matchday Live show, offering their expert insight before, during and after the action.

During the game you can also listen to live audio commentary from Alistair Mann and Andy Morrison while our text commentary continues.

Make sure to have push notifications turned on as well, so you can be alerted to key moments in the action, including goals, red cards and the team news.

Short highlights will be available from 21:00 (UK), whilst extended highlights and a full-match replay [available on CITY+] can be accessed from midnight.