Pep Guardiola called out for his comments about Man Utd's Champions League win in 1999
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Pep Guardiola claims to have been "a little boy" when he watched Manchester United beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.
The Spaniard was speaking about Manchester City's chances of scooping a historic treble when the subject cropped up.
In fact, Guardiola says he was sitting in the Camp Nou stands on that famous night in 1999, when stoppage time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sealed all three trophies.
Pep, who is not thinking about achieving a treble until he has two of the three secured, went on to make a rather unusual claim about his age when discussing one of the greatest achievements in sporting history.
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Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of their clash against Brighton on Wednesday, the Spaniard said: "It was once in the lifetime in the UK, one team, it was United, the way they won against Bayern Munich in Camp Nou. I was there as a little boy."
Here's how social media reacted to the comments.
One fan said: "As a "little boy" I never knew 28 was a little boys age," while another wrote: ""Little boy"... a 28- year old footballer that already won 15 titles for Barcelona and Olympic gold medal."
A third commented: "What is he even talking about? He was 28 and played 26 games for Barcelona that season."
A fourth added: "Pep, you were 28 years old and the captain of Barcelona in 1999."
🗣️ "It was once in the lifetime in the UK, one team, it was United, the way they won against Bayern Munich in Camp Nou. I was there as a little boy."
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 24, 2023
Pep Guardiola is not thinking about achieving a treble until he has two of the three secured 🏆 pic.twitter.com/pQNUiwu5JG
Little boy pic.twitter.com/O2N0wcnTOq
— UTDQatar 🇶🇦 (@jamanoor04) May 24, 2023
Pep Guardiola's side are just two games away from completing a historic treble. They will come up against Inter Milan at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul on June 10 in this season's Champions League final.
But before that, they must beat local rivals United in a highly-anticipated FA Cup final on June 3.
Speaking about both of those games next month, Guardiola said this week: "The demanding FA Cup final against Man United will be really, really difficult. And I have started to watch minutes of Inter and I am really impressed. I am really impressed with what they do.
“The body language that they have and many things. It's not a coincidence that there are three Italian teams in the final of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League and in the semi-finals there were more. So they are there."
He added: “I know because I played there and I know the mentality that Italian teams have in the finals. So two decades ago, the Italian league was the best league in the world. Everyone wanted to go there – players, managers, they all wanted to go there.
“How many World Cups have they won already? This is their mentality.
“I said right after – to play in a final against an Italian team is always really complicated.
“I saw a bit already. I called a few friends who live in Italy to see how they are. All the people tell me: 'Be alert'. It's not necessary to tell me because I felt it. I saw already some minutes in some games."
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/@footballdaily - Alamy
Topics: Pep Guardiola, Manchester City, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Champions League
