John Stones Manchester City
Pep Guardiola will be emotional before and during the Champions League final, according to John Stones. Guardiola has guided City to the final of the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history – and it’s the Catalan’s first final since leaving Barcelona. This is a big game for City, and the pressure will be on the manager, from the outside at least, to win Europe’s biggest club prize after years of trying. However, Stones believes that Guardiola will approach the game the same as he usually does – even if there might be some heightened emotions given the nature of the final.
John Stones said: “He will be the same as always. He will be very pumped up for the game, very focused, the typical Pep. I don’t know if he knows how to be any different, to express himself and to tell us to go and express ourselves on the pitch and to go and play and be true to ourselves. Play the City way as we have done over the seasons and to have that desire and passion in how he expresses that to us before the game and during it. He might be a little bit emotional in the respect of what he has been fighting for in the past four or five years along with us while he has been at City. To be able to reach a final with us as a squad and everyone involved here. I am sure he will relish in the occasion and take it all in. I can’t see him being any different! I think we get the winning mentality from him, the desire to win and the pressure to win. I think we put pressure on ourselves and he puts pressure on us which is only right because he demands a lot from us and we should, first and foremost, demand it from ourselves. What he has done for me and what he has taught me on the pitch has been something I hope I can only repay with my performances. For everyone in the club, what he has brought to Manchester City over these five years is incredible. The amount of trophies, the memories, he is important on and off the pitch and I am sure he is dying to get his hands on this one for sure, which we have worked so hard for.”
Stones added that City have taken the pain from previous exits in the Champions League to improve this season, as he praised the winning mentality in the squad who have flown out to Porto.
John Stones added: “I think sometimes you have to look at previous experiences, like Lyon. We have had some difficult decisions in previous years. We have learnt a lot from them. We have not shied away from saying ‘this was wrong’ or ‘we did this wrong’ and we tried to improve. Once you have experienced something you try and learn from it and try to improve and we have done that all season and tried to stay consistent with how we play. The winning mentality of the boys is incredible. We took it a game at a time, focused all our energy and played every game as if it were a final. The teams we have played against and knocked out of the Champions League is something in itself. We have not done it the easy way at all. We have won 11 games in the Champions League [this season] and it has been a progression every year for me and as a team. To make it to a Champions League final from all the hurt and disappointment from previous years, I think we have learned a lot and brought that to this season to get us to where we are now.”
