Pep Guardiola identifies Manchester City’s nightmare Champions League quarter-final opponents

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has identified the best team in Europe among his side’s potential quarter-final opponents in the Champions League.

City progressed through to the last-eight of Europe’s premier club competition with a 7-0 win over RB Leipzig at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, with five of those goals scored by Erling Haaland on a historic night for the youngster.

That win meant Manchester City secured their place in the next round with an 8-1 aggregate scoreline over the Bundesliga opponents, eagerly awaiting the outcome of Friday’s much-anticipated bumper draw.

Before then however, manager Pep Guardiola has seemingly identified what he believes would be Manchester City’s nightmare opponents in the next round, by revealing Europe’s best team.

Speaking to Sky Italy, as translated and relayed by Fabrizio Romano on Wednesday, the Manchester City boss described runaway Serie A leaders Napoli as the best team in Europe so far this season, crediting their style of play for that statement.

“Napoli are maybe the best team in Europe this year, in terms of playing style, close to Arsenal,” said Pep Guardiola.

Napoli are yet to officially reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but hold a 2-0 advantage going into their second-leg last-16 tie against Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night.

During the same conversation with the broadcaster, Guardiola was obviously asked to speaking about the man of the evening in Erling Haaland, as the City coach described his star centre-forward as ‘unbelievable’ in regards to his mentality.

“(Erling) Haaland has an unbelievable mentality. We’re so happy with this boy. We didn’t know him (before signing for Manchester City), but Erling is always happy, always funny, he’s nice with his teammates.

“No one can compete with Erling, if we speak using the numbers.”

Guardiola continued, “I know Haaland equalled (Lionel) Messi’s record (for the most goals scored in a single Champions League game, 5) of course I remember! It’s incredible he did it in 60 minutes.

“Erling is young. He has an incentive of beating Messi’s record in the future. If he’d have achieved that at 22 years-old, he would be bored in his future!”