Ahead Of Boxing Day Against Everton, Guardiola Reveals City's Concerns Failed To Qualify For Champions League

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland's training ahead of Boxing Day. (Doc. Instagram/@mancity)

JAKARTA - Tonight at 19.30 WIB, Manchester City will face Everton in Boxing Day, the first match of the Premier League after Christmas.

Ahead of the match, Pep Guardiola acknowledged his concern that Manchester City would not qualify for the Champions League. The club has qualified for the competition for 14 consecutive seasons, but a tremendous drop in performance has put them "at risk," the manager said, admitting there will be financial and sporting impacts if that happens.

City are currently in seventh place in the Premier League standings, four points adrift of Nottingham Forest who are in fourth place. The fifth position has the potential to secure Champions League tickets, with UEFA providing two additional leagues with one extra spot based on the performance of their clubs in all European competitions this season.

"Financial is a problem, of course," he said, "but not only that. Now we are at risk, of course, for sure. When I said earlier this could happen, people laughed. It's too confident: we won the Premier League," he said. quoted from The Guardian, Wednesday, December 26.

Guardiola also added that the only team that has been in the Champions League for the past 11 or 12 years is Man City.

"If we don't qualify it's because we don't deserve it. Because we're not ready, because we have a lot of problems and don't solve the problem and find a way to win the game. There are many competitors to be there. For each club it is very important and if we don't win the game, we will be eliminated," he concluded.