Pep Guardiola took his time to discuss the styles of Manchester City and Atletico Madrid ahead of the Champions League Quarter-final clash, but refused to criticise the Spanish side.
The Spaniard insisted that he didn’t want to have a debate about which style of football is better and he had praise for Diego Simeone‘s men.
“I won’t talk one second about these stupid debates,” Guardiola said.
“Everyone tries to win the games. If they win, they will be right, if we win, we are right.
“There are lots of styles in this game, mainly based on the quality of the players. This team are champions of Spain.
“There is a misconception about the way Simeone plays. It’s more offensive than people believe. He doesn’t want to take a risk in the build-up but they are very good in the final third.
“They are so competitive. It depends on the movement of the game and they know how to play at the exact moment.
“They are a very rich team tactically. What can we do to annoy them? That’s what we will do tomorrow and next week.”
He admits that he overthinks once it comes to champions League.
“In the Champions League, always I overthink,” he said.
“I overthink a lot, that’s why I’ve had very good results in the Champions League.
“That’s why I overthink and create stupid tactics. Tonight I’ll find inspiration and do incredible tactics tomorrow. We’ll play with 12 tomorrow!”
He ruled out the influence of a coach in the tie.
“I didn’t invent football and I’ve never scored a goal or saved a penalty as coach,” he said.
“I wish I was that important. What we’ve done at Barcelona and Bayern and here, Johan Cruyff and Carles Rexach also did at Barcelona.”
