Pep Guardiola gives honest answer on rival support for Man City in Champions League final

Pep Guardiola will not care about Manchester City’s popularity when they start the Champions League final on Saturday.

The Blues are one game away from matching the achievement of the Manchester United team from 1999, becoming just the second side in English football to win the three biggest prizes on offer in a season.

Having defeated United at Wembley to win the FA Cup, victory over Inter Milan in Istanbul will see them win the Champions League for the first time.

Despite being the only English team in the final, City may not be able to count on the support of the country when they take on Inter.

In addition to anyone at United keen to preserve their record as unique, eight clubs tried to keep the Blues out of Europe before the Court of Arbitration for Sport reinstated them in 2020 and there is fresh bad blood over the Premier League charges City are facing.

Pep Guardiola is not expecting to unite the country this weekend, although equally does not think that Inter will have every Italian on board. Even if he cannot count on rival support, the City boss is happy for his team and fans to be representing their country.

“I don’t know,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know if United want us to win the Champions League! I’m not able to discover all the people in England.

“Of course we represent this country and we want to do it well, our fans in Istanbul represent our club and the UK. To know exactly if all of them want us to win, I don’t know.

“When you are at this stage, not all the people around the world wants you to win. I am sure there are a lot of people in Italy who want Inter and the others don’t. That’s football with rivalry.

“People who like us for sure but the other ones it doesn’t matter if they want Inter Milan. At the end, it’s not a big important issue.”