Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has said that Chelsea and Palmeiras are the two best teams in world football at this moment in time, not his team. Although he did mistakenly say Chelsea and River Plate first, only to rectify his statement when he realised that Palmeiras, not River, won the Copa Libertadores.
Guardiola’s reasoning was that Chelsea and Palmeiras are the champions of Europe and South America, with the former winning the Champions League and the latter the Libertadores. They face off this Sunday evening in the final of the Club World Cup.
“We’re not the best team in the world,” Guardiola said in comments carried by Marca. “The best team is Chelsea. They won the Europa League, the Champions League. The other best team is River Plate because they won in South America.
“I think so. No, I know. These opinions about who is the best don’t matter. The important thing is that tomorrow we win the game and in three days we go to Norwich to win another game. So this kind of thing, about who’s the best, I don’t care about it.”
Guardiola was speaking ahead of City’s Premier League clash with Brentford last night, and his team did indeed win 2-0 thanks to goals from Riyad Mahrez and Kevin de Bruyne.
They’re 12 points clear of second-placed Liverpool at the top of the table and will hope to continue their fine form when they play Sporting Club de Portugal in the last 16 of the Champions League. They lost last season’s final to Chelsea and Guardiola is determined to win the competition he last won with Barcelona eleven years ago when they beat Manchester United in 2011.
