Pep Guardiola has insisted that there is more than money behind Manchester City success as the Cityzens reached their first-ever Champions League final at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain.
City piped PSG 2-0 at home thanks to Riyad Mahrez brace to secure a 4-1 aggregate score-line, booking their place in the final in Instanbul on Saturday 29 May.
Guardiola, who was brought in to take City to the apex of European football said being in the final has now shown what the club has achieved in last couple of years since the time he took over as manager.
“People believe it’s easy to arrive in the final of the Champions League. Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years,” Guardiola said while praising the consistency of his players and expressed relief at riding their luck at times.
“Every day these guys have been consistent. We scored a goal through the hips [of the defensive wall] in the first game, and today Marquinhos hit the bar in the first half – you can be out for little details,” he explained.
“Manchester United won a title [in 2008] because of John Terry’s slip and scored in the last minute against Bayern Munich [in 1999] and Real Madrid won a title against Atletico in the 93rd minute [in 2014]. It’s a competition that is so difficult and something in the stars is involved in that.
“I want to thank the owner, the chairman and the staff at the club. This club is about all the people that work behind the scenes, it’s not just about money. If you want to think that then you are wrong.”
