{"id":226315,"date":"2025-06-30T09:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226315\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T09:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:49:13","slug":"pep-guardiola-defends-jurgen-klopp-club-world-cup-maybe-will-destroy-us-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226315\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola defends Jurgen Klopp – Club World Cup ‘maybe will destroy us’ – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola concedes he does not know if Manchester City<\/a>\u2019s next Premier League<\/a> challenge will be \u201cdestroyed\u201d by their Club World Cup campaign or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n

England manager Thomas Tuchel recently said the involvement of City and Chelsea<\/a> in this summer\u2019s tournament in the United States would hand the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal<\/a> a \u201chuge advantage\u201d in the title race.<\/p>\n

Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp<\/a> has also described the event as \u201cthe worst idea ever implemented in football\u201d because of concerns over player welfare.<\/p>\n

Guardiola, however, insists City \u2013 who face Al-Hilal in a last-16 tie in Orlando on Monday night (2am Tuesday UK) \u2013 are focused on rediscovering their best after a frustrating 2024-25 season and claiming the prize.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The City manager said: \u201cI try to relax, enjoy the days here and the good vibes that we have, the competition and we try to win it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to recover and find within ourselves what we were. That\u2019s my main target in this tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to feel that this is our path again to be competitive like we have been in eight of the last nine years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this, let\u2019s see what happens. Let\u2019s see what happens after the final. We will rest for the time the Premier League<\/a> allow us.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe in November, December or January it will be a disaster, we are exhausted and the World Cup has destroyed us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, it\u2019s the first time in our lives that this has happened. We will see when we come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/p>\n

Guardiola says he can understand the viewpoint of his old rival Klopp, now head of global soccer for Red Bull, who had a team involved in the tournament in Salzburg.<\/p>\n

Yet he suggested people complaining might be jealous.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference, Guardiola said: \u201cI fought a lot with Jurgen many, many times. I know where his idea comes from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect him, I would defend his argument as well. At the same time, as managers, we are in a job. We don\u2019t organise the competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we are here, we are proud. Many, many teams complain about these competitions because they are not here, otherwise they might love being here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Weather problems have been a recurring issue in the tournament both in terms of intense heat and thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a>\u2019s last-16 victory over Benfica on Saturday was suspended for almost two hours due to lightning in the vicinity.<\/p>\n

Guardiola said: \u201cI am an extraordinary manager but to control lightning and thunder, still I am not good enough!<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is (suspended) here the same reason as why they suspend the other one, I will go inside and we will continue to be active and play again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the ideal situation but I grew up to understand not to be worried about the situations that I can\u2019t control. So no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola concedes he does not know if Manchester City\u2019s next Premier League challenge will be \u201cdestroyed\u201d by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,763,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-226315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool-fc","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114771693720301641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}