Guardiola on Al-Hilal: “They have a lot of quality. They are a complete team that can run and run”

The victory could be considered symbolic of Saudi Pro League’s quality, even though Guardiola’s side were not at their sharpest. Guardiola’s team wasted a clutch of chances, with Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland, Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias and Savinho squandering presentable opportunities.

But Guardiola would praise the Saudi side. “Al-Hilal has a lot of quality. They are a complete team that can run and run – I have a big opinion of them,” he said.

The precision in counterattacking hurt them immensely. “When the crosses arrived, in the first action, they had the ability to pass the ball and attack and they have quick players. We created a lot and had a lot of chances against a team that defend so deep. They punished us on the transitions,” he said.

Al-Hilal manager Simone Inzaghi, just three weeks into taking over the club’s stewardship, was at a loss of words when praising his side: “Tonight we had to do something extraordinary because we knew how good Manchester City are, we knew we had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and we were great. Guardiola is the best coach in the world but tonight we did our best and we deserved the result. We were great. All the players were exceptional in everything, in the possession phase, non-possession phase.”

Centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, who scored a towering header in the 94th minute, said his team wanted to show that they are one of the best in the world. “We knew that it was one of the difficult games against one of the best of the best teams in the world, we wanted to show ideas, our talent, and I think that we made a very good game, defensively we were very strong, and offensively we used all the opportunities that came our way,” Koulibaly told reporters after the game.

“But after we know we are done yet, we still have to continue on believing, we showed a lot of mentality, and we can be happy because we are back in our principle,” he added.