Manchester City And FC Barcelona Legend Guardiola Praises Flick’s ‘Extraordinary’ Side

Manchester City and FC Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola praised the work that the Catalans’ new head coach Hansi Flick has done so far.

The two clubs met in Orlando on Tuesday evening, with Barca winning a penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw in regular time.

“I really liked the team,” said the La Masia product, widely considered to be Barca’s greatest ever manager, about the Blaugrana at a post-match press conference.

“The seasons are long and the pre-seasons are very special, the competition is something else, but they have done a lot of things well,” Guardiola added.

The three-time Champions League winner confessed that his men “suffered a lot when they had the ball” and stressed that Barca’s players performed admirably considering the short time they have had to learn former Bayern Munich boss Flick’s concepts while “the positional play of his team is extraordinary”.

Guardiola highlighted how in the 2019/2020 treble king’s outfit, “the wingers play as wingers, the midfielders arrive in front, and the full-backs attack the space.”

As someone that promoted Sergio Busquets to the first team in 2008, Guardiola also had plenty of positive things to say about a potential successor to the pivot in Marc Bernal, who “seemed extraordinary to me” for the way he “controls” the game and plays.

“But they all played incredible, they do things very well, they know when they have to run, when they have to press, when they have to anticipate. I wish them all the best,” Guardiola signed off.

In his own post-match press conference, Flick said that he and his staff want to build something similar to that which Guardiola has managed at the Etihad.

“We were really good against a great team. We defended together and attacked together as a team, and that’s what we want. We fight for each other,” Flick remarked.

“Maybe in the first half we were too deep, our idea is to be a little more forward, [and] we need more possession, but we played against Manchester City… Pep Guardiola has been there for eight years and we want to do the same as them in terms of philosophy. Maybe a little different but with that idea,” the German added.