Pep Guardiola wants Manchester City to avoid Barcelona in the Champions League more than any other team this season.
The Premier League champions have started positively in this year's competition and drawn with Inter Milan in addition to defeating Slovan Bratislava. Guardiola's side will not face the Catalan giants in the 'league phase' of the tournament's new format but could they could meet in the knockout stages of the competition.
City have not faced Barcelona, the club Guardiola played for more than a decade and later managed to unprecedented success, since their boss' first season at the Etihad. They met in the group stages in 2016 and each shared a comprehensive home win, City taking a 3-1 victory, and Barcelona winning 4-0 at Camp Nou.
The sentimentality of facing a side he has such close ties with, leaves Guardiola preferring not to draw the La Liga giants however. The 53-year-old conceded he would not find it easy to take on his first team.
"Good question. Barcelona maybe," Guardiola told Italian show Che Tempo Che Fa. "The affection I have for them destroys me. I was born in a small town nearby, it’s never easy to play against them."
Guardiola was also asked for his verdict on the new format of the Champions League. The City boss is not making a judgement just yet however.
"I don’t understand, I just coach," he said. "I think we’ll be able to answer this question only at the end of the season."
Guardiola was also asked about Lionel Messi during the interview. The Argetina international was named the best player in the world during each of his seasons working under Guardiola and scored 211 goals in 219 appearances, also adding 94 assists.
For the former Bayern Munich coach, there is nobody better to have played the game. Guardiola regards Messi as a player that goes beyond football.
"For me it's easy to say he's the best of all time, but the stars came together at the right moment," Guardiola explained. "The GOAT? Maybe that's a lack of respect to Pele and Maradona, but for me, he is.
"I've never seen someone like him as a coach, you can't imagine him maintaining this continuity for 15-20 years. When you see him up close, you think of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, we were lucky to work with him."
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"Good question. Barcelona maybe," Guardiola told Italian show Che Tempo Che Fa. "The affection I have for them destroys me. I was born in a small town nearby, it’s never easy to play against them."
