Pep Guardiola has hailed his Manchester City players’ spirit and determination following their last-gasp victory against Wolves, as he prepares for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Sparta Prague.
City, who are unbeaten this season, will head into the game inspired by John Stones’ 95th-minute victory at Molineux on Sunday, which maintained them on top of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
The 2023 European champions have four points from their first two games in the revised Champions League group stage, including a 0-0 tie with Inter Milan and a 4-0 victory over Slovan Bratislava.
City, who have won four consecutive Premier League titles, are competing in European football’s top club competition for the 14th consecutive season.
Guardiola remarked in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday that the manner of the victory at Wolves, as well as the way his players celebrated, demonstrated their persistent hunger.
“How we celebrate when a team now is in the position in the bottom (Wolves), how we celebrate in October, not in May or April like it’s happened, I feel the team still have the passion,” he said.
“How we celebrate in the locker room, I still feel ‘OK, they still want it, still we are there’ and that means a lot to me, a lot.
“They know, the team, how difficult it is to be consistent for six, seven years. You can be consistent for a month, for a season, but six, seven years and still now we are there. All the teams go down, still we are in that position.”
Guardiola said he was “more than happy” with how his team were coping in the absence of key midfielder Rodri, who has been ruled out of the rest of the season with a knee injury.
The City boss said it was important to make home advantage count against their Czech opponents, with tough away trips to come to Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
The new-look league format for this season’s competition means only the top eight teams out of 36 automatically qualify for the knockout stages after the initial eight-match schedule.
“It is not easy,” said Guardiola. “The games we have at home we have to close it, otherwise it’ll be difficult to finish in the first eight and that’s the target we want to achieve.”