Julian Nagelsmann has his say on Bayern Munich vs Manchester City in the Champions League quarterfinals

Bayern Munich got Manchester City in the Quarterfinals of the Champions League. Most people would have preferred to postpone squaring off against Erling Haaland in a later round, but here we are. Either way, Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said that it’s a challenge that he welcomes. Oh yeah, he watched it with the rest of his coaching staff.

“We watched it together in the coaching staff. It’s a good, challenging draw”, Nagelsmann said (via @iMiaSanMia). “If we win the title at the end, nobody can say we were lucky. We already had a tough group stage, then PSG and now City. The potential semi-final would also be top-class”.

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The 35-year-old likened Bayern’s path to the final to Real Madrid’s last season who got Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea FC, Manchester City, and Liverpool en route to their UCL victory. “Real Madrid had a similar path last year”, Nags recalled. “The draw gives me a lot of energy and a lot of anticipation. We will prepare well and we are looking forward to it.”

The tactical showdown between Nagelsmann and Guardiola is something that piques the interest, and while Nags did watch the Spaniard’s games, he does not copy his style. “I watched a lot of his games in Barcelona, ​​also at City & Bayern. But I never copied from a coach. Pep’s teams are fun to watch. His idea of ​​football is very attacking, his teams have a lot of possession.”

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After Bayern’s defense had to deal with Kylian Mbappé in the last round, they now have to take on Haaland and his insane goalscoring exploits. Nagelsmann admires the Norwegian and his supporting cast. “Haaland is an exceptional player,” noted Nagelsmann. “He has an extreme quality in terms of speed and physicality. He’s even more physical than Mbappé. But we also have very good attacking players, City also have many other good players.”

Of course, the sting of getting dumped out of the Champions League by an inferior team last season still lingers, but Jules is determined to go better than that. “We didn’t do well in the first leg last year,” Nags recalled. “In the second leg we were very good but we had one situation that led to our elimination. We want to go further this year, so we want to win our games against City.”

Looking for more thoughts on the draw, check out our “Reaction Podcast” to see how we feel about Bayern Munich vs. Manchester City: