Guardiola’s glittering CV missing one item: Beat Spurs away،
After completing a historic treble with Manchester City last season, Pep Guardiola was asked what still remains for him to achieve.
“Score a goal against Spurs away,” he says quickly, and probably only half-jokingly.
He won't need reminding that he will take his team to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday in the FA Cup. (3 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+) looking for a first win since October 2018. It's been so long since Nicolás Otamendi and Leroy Sané were in the City team and Kieran Trippier started for Spurs. Guardiola's last five visits to Tottenham have all ended in defeat without scoring a goal.
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It is a series launched by Mauricio Pochettino (1-0 in April 2019) and continued by Jose Mourinho (2-0 in February 2020 and 2-0 in November 2020), Nuno Espirito Santo (1-0 in August 2021). and Antonio Conte (1-0 in February 2023). Ange Postecoglou, appointed this summer, is the next Spurs manager to try his luck having already masterminded a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Etihad Stadium in December.
After finally winning the Champions League with City last season, there was speculation that Guardiola could resign. However, the 53-year-old can find motivation in even the smallest things.
“I want to beat Spurs,” he joked. “That’s why I’m staying.”
His next opportunity comes with City's triple defense in play.
“[City’s record there] That's the reality, how difficult it is for us,” Guardiola said at a press conference on Thursday. “There's always a new opportunity to break it, and most of the time we really have good game. The way we behaved and the way we played was good, but the reality is: no goals and five defeats. »
City and Spurs already have history in the FA Cup after playing one of the most remarkable matches in the competition's history.
It has been almost 20 years since City traveled to White Hart Lane in February 2004 for a fourth round replay and were 3-0 down after 43 minutes. Joey Barton was sent off just before half-time, but with just 10 men in the second half, goals from Sylvain Distin, Paul Bosvelt and Shaun Wright-Phillips saw City trailing level. It was left to Jon Macken, as a substitute, to head in a 90th-minute winner and cap off one of the greatest comebacks in FA Cup history.
In the previous campaign, in 2002-03, City and Spurs finished ninth and tenth respectively in the Premier League, separated by a single point. Their trajectories since have been so different that this time they will meet City widely regarded as the best club team in the world and Postecoglou charged with winning Spurs their first trophy since 2008.
The bold and direct Australian, who had to fend off accusations he copied parts of Guardiola's tactical plan, has propelled Spurs into the title race after just 21 games. Beating City on Friday would give them a realistic chance of winning the FA Cup for the first time since 1991.
Without European football this season, he was criticized for his decision to rotate his squad before the Carabao Cup defeat to Fulham in August, but he later insisted it was only because he wanted to have the opportunity to take a closer look at some of its players. marginal players. Once that assessment is complete, he will likely field his best team against City.
He will not be able to call on Son Heung-min, who scored eight goals against City, during his trip to South Korea in the Asian Cup. James Maddison, impressive since his summer transfer from Leicester City but absent since November due to an ankle injury, is however back in training and could return.
Guardiola, meanwhile, will have to decide whether to give Kevin De Bruyne his first start after five months out with a hamstring injury. City's medical staff are keen to facilitate De Bruyne's smooth return, but if there was any doubt about his importance to Guardiola, he proved it with 20 minutes in the 3-2 win over Newcastle United at St. James' Park earlier this month.
For all Guardiola's questioning of a busy schedule, he takes domestic cup competitions seriously, and City have reached at least the FA Cup semi-finals in each of the last five seasons. Tottenham's last semi-final appearance in the competition was in 2018.
After winning the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia in December, Guardiola said the triumph – City's fifth trophy of 2023 – had “closed a chapter” for the club, having won everything there was to earn. He looked like a man who had finished football.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou's first six months at Spurs have been dominated by questions over whether he is the man to usher in a new era of success. Postecoglou has a lot of things to do, but for Guardiola there is only one thing left: beating Tottenham.
