Pep: 'Meeting Villa is like a final'

Pep breathed a sigh of relief as Manchester City narrowly beat Everton.

Manchester City head coach admitted that the 2-0 victory over Everton on the evening of April 19 in round 33 had great significance in the race for a place in the Champions League.

At Goodison Park, late goals from Nico O'Reilly (84th minute) and Mateo Kovacic (90+2 minute of injury time) helped Man City climb to 4th place in the rankings.

The match seemed to end in a draw, as Man City struggled against Everton’s tight play, but Pep’s players showed their mettle at the right time. “This victory is very important, very important,” Guardiola stressed to The Guardian in his post-match speech.

“You don’t have to be too smart to realise that,” added Pep. “We have five or six games left and to win at Goodison Park, where Everton have just beaten Nottingham Forest, when Liverpool and Arsenal can’t win here, is huge.”

“Everything is in our hands now. The game on Tuesday (early morning of April 23) against Aston Villa is like a final. We have three home games, two away games, and hopefully we will have a big success to qualify for the Champions League,” Guardiola concluded.

With 58 points after 33 matches, Man City is now ahead of Forest and Villa - the two teams ranked 5th and 6th respectively (both with 57 points), at the same time, the Etihad team also created a three-point gap with the team ranked 7th, Chelsea (54 points). In the middle of next week, Man City will host Villa at home.

Source: https://znews.vn/pep-gap-villa-giong-nhu-tran-chung-ket-post1547275.html