Man City boss Guardiola unsure how to stop fearsome PSG attack
Manchester City will take on Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League clash today (Tuesday).
LONDON (AFP) - Pep Guardiola says he does not know how to stop the deadly attacking trident of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as he prepares for Tuesday s blockbuster Champions League clash at Paris Saint-Germain.
The match is a repeat of last season s semi-final, which City won 4-1 on aggregate to reach their first Champions League final, which they lost to Chelsea.
Messi completed a sensational free transfer from Barcelona to PSG in August, with the French club uniting the Argentine, Brazilian star Neymar and French World Cup winner Mbappe up front.
Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barcelona, winning two Champions League titles under Guardiola as well as several domestic trophies.
"With this amount of quality, I don t know what we should do to stop them -- they are so good," the City boss said on Monday.
"This amount of talent, all together to be controlled, is so difficult. You have to defend well when we don t have the ball, but it s difficult.
"They are exceptional players, everybody knows it."
Guardiola has bitter experience of facing Messi and Neymar from when he was manager at Bayern Munich -- the two players scored five goals between them to dump his team out at the Champions League semi-finals in 2015.
The City boss believes PSG s star-studded front line can match that of Barcelona s in 2015 -- which also included Luis Suarez -- and Liverpool s front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
"They have the quality (to match)," he said. "They have exceptional players and a good organisation and I think the manager (Mauricio Pochettino) can do it.
"We know exactly how difficult it (PSG s attack) is -- maybe it s the most difficult one.
"We are going to try and do our game, knowing how good they are individually and collectively."
Manchester City top Group A after sweeping aside Leipzig 6-3 in their Champions League opener and are second in the Premier League after Saturday s 1-0 win at Chelsea ahead of Monday s game between Crystal Palace and Brighton.
PSG are two points behind City after an opening 1-1 draw against Club Brugge but top France s Ligue 1 after winning all eight of their league fixtures so far.
