“It’s just unbelievable” – Pep Guardiola hits back at Gary Neville “bored” jibe

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has responded to recent comments by Gary Neville.

The former Manchester United and England star revealed that he had become “bored” of watching Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, speaking following the Sky Blues’ first-leg last-16 win over FC Copenhagen on Tuesday evening.

Manchester City took a major step towards reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the Parken Stadium, as goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden helped Guardiola’s side to an important 3-1 win in Denmark.

City, who are unbeaten in the Champions League since a semi-final second-leg loss to Real Madrid in May 2022, have won all seven matches during their European campaign so far this season, as the Blues bid to reach June’s final at Wembley Stadium.

The treble-winners lifted the Champions League trophy for the first time in the club’s history last season, and are looking to reach the final for a third time in four years.

Manchester City are also currently amidst a three-team battle for the Premier League title, with only two points separating the Sky Blues, Liverpool and Arsenal ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.

City and Arsenal are the only two English sides remaining in the Champions League, after both Newcastle United and Manchester United failed to progress to the knockout stages.

Despite Manchester City thrashing both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid as part of last season’s victorious Champions League campaign, Gary Neville claims that he has become “bored” of watching the club in the competition.

“I didn’t switch Manchester City [vs FC Copenhagen] on, on Tuesday night. I felt a bit bored,” said Neville during the Stick to Football podcast.

Guardiola has since hit back at Neville’s claims, replying: “No, thank you for the compliment. What can I say? It’s fine, what can I say? Everything is so difficult in football, so difficult.

“You have to do many things to try to win games, and games over many, many years. What this group of players have done for many years and this season as well is admirable.

“It’s hats off to my players, it’s just unbelievable when they’re consistent and the way we take seriously our opponents how good they are, and I have the same opinion before I played Copenhagen; it’s a really incredible and difficult (team) to attack, really one.

“If you are not perfect in many, many things or really, really good in many, many aspects of the game, we cannot achieve what we achieved in the last-16.

“Still we have one game to play here and we will take it seriously. This is the only thing I can say to my players. Hopefully we can continue in that way.”