Media365 editorial staff, published on Saturday March 05, 2022 at 09:00
Ahead of the Manchester derby, City manager Pep Guardiola was full of praise for ‘aging’ Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo is currently going through a complicated pass, marked in particular by his inefficiency at the forefront since he has only scored once in the last 10 matches of MU. Despite this slowdown, the 37-year-old Portuguese striker still arouses a lot of admiration and respect. Pep Guardiola, Manchester City coach, said in particular that his esteem for him remains intact.
Cristiano Ronaldo, “an exceptional finisher”
At a press conference on Friday and as the two teams prepare to face off in a derby (Sunday at 5:30 p.m.), the Catalan technician revealed all the good he still thought of the fivefold Ballon d’Or. “He was one of the greatest of the last 15 years, alongside Messi, he recalled to start. What these two guys did, we will not see again. When you realize such things, you are scrutinized every second of your life and today even more so with social media. As a finisher he is exceptional, I will not hide that it has been a joy to watch him in recent years (…) We have to control him. When you’re one of the greatest like him in terms of a goal-scoring machine, you’ll always be there. He is very strong mentally. He handled the pressure with no problem as he lived with the expectation throughout his career and always responded positively. »
Guardiola went on to say that he is very suspicious of CR7, fearing that the latter will wake up to his training. “We have to explode our game, our strength to avoid Cristiano near the surface, because there he is almost unstoppable,” he said. I remember when we were playing there and we were winning 1-0 and we had control and then the first time he came on he created a chance and Eddy made an amazing save . He hadn’t touched the ball but he almost scored. It is the quality and the capacity that he has”.
