<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City side to expect a stern examination of their Champions League credentials at Southampton this weekend.<\/p>\n
City ended a run of four games without a win by claiming three important points in the battle for the top-four positions with a routine victory over Hull last weekend.<\/p>\n
But Guardiola’s side still have some work to do to secure a place in Europe’s top club competition next season, and the City boss is wary of the threat of Saints.<\/p>\n
The south coast club reached the EFL Cup final this season and are on course for a top-half finish. Claude Puel’s side also took a point off City with a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium in a game remembered for a costly error by John Stones in October.<\/p>\n
Guardiola said: “I think Southampton are making an exceptional season.<\/p>\n
“They have, of course, a good manager and exceptional players in all positions. They have very good midfielders, all the strikers are so fast, they play the wingers inside – and all of them have good quality. The full-backs are guys who go up and down.<\/p>\n
“They are a really, really good team. I was really impressed when they came here at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n
“Of course in that moment we came back from Barcelona, had played a lot of games in that period and we were tired.<\/p>\n
“But of course they are a good team. It’s a really good test for us.”<\/p>\n
City go into the game fourth in the table, four points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United. Their neighbours, however, have a game in hand and the two sides are still to play each other.<\/p>\n
Guardiola has said he will decide on the day whether to play Claudio Bravo or Willy Caballero in goal.<\/p>\n
Bravo returned for the Hull game after eight Premier League games on the bench but was criticised for allowing the Tigers to score a late consolation from the only shot they had on target.<\/p>\n
That continued a dismal sequence for the Chilean, who was dropped after conceding six goals from six shots faced in back-to-back games against Everton and Tottenham in January.<\/p>\n
Captain Vincent Kompany is in contention after being left out against Hull as a precaution following his long-awaited return to the side in the previous game at Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Source: PA<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\t\tPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n From Football.co.uk<\/a>
Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City side to expect a stern examination of their Champions League credentials at Southampton this weekend. City ended a run of four games without a win by claiming three important points in the battle for the top-four positions with a routine victory over Hull last weekend. But Guardiola’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[371,30,120,80,188],"class_list":["post-4159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-premier-league","tag-football-news","tag-news","tag-south-africa-today-sport","tag-sport","tag-sport-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
South Africa Today Sport \u2013 Sport News Football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\nPep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City side to expect a stern examination of their Champions League credentials at Southampton this weekend.<\/p>\nCity ended a run of four games without a win by claiming three important points in the battle for the top-four positions with a routine victory over Hull last weekend.<\/p>\nBut Guardiola’s side still have some work to do to secure a place in Europe’s top club competition next season, and the City boss is wary of the threat of Saints.<\/p>\nThe south coast club reached the EFL Cup final this season and are on course for a top-half finish. Claude Puel’s side also took a point off City with a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium in a game remembered for a costly error by John Stones in October.<\/p>\nGuardiola said: “I think Southampton are making an exceptional season.<\/p>\n“They have, of course, a good manager and exceptional players in all positions. They have very good midfielders, all the strikers are so fast, they play the wingers inside – and all of them have good quality. The full-backs are guys who go up and down.<\/p>\n“They are a really, really good team. I was really impressed when they came here at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n“Of course in that moment we came back from Barcelona, had played a lot of games in that period and we were tired.<\/p>\n“But of course they are a good team. It’s a really good test for us.”<\/p>\nCity go into the game fourth in the table, four points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United. Their neighbours, however, have a game in hand and the two sides are still to play each other.<\/p>\nGuardiola has said he will decide on the day whether to play Claudio Bravo or Willy Caballero in goal.<\/p>\nBravo returned for the Hull game after eight Premier League games on the bench but was criticised for allowing the Tigers to score a late consolation from the only shot they had on target.<\/p>\nThat continued a dismal sequence for the Chilean, who was dropped after conceding six goals from six shots faced in back-to-back games against Everton and Tottenham in January.<\/p>\nCaptain Vincent Kompany is in contention after being left out against Hull as a precaution following his long-awaited return to the side in the previous game at Chelsea.<\/p>\nSource: PA<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\tPlease enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\nFrom Football.co.uk<\/a>\nSouth Africa Today Sport \u2013 Sport News Football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City side to expect a stern examination of their Champions League credentials at Southampton this weekend. City ended a run of four games without a win by claiming three important points in the battle for the top-four positions with a routine victory over Hull last weekend. But Guardiola’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[371,30,120,80,188],"class_list":["post-4159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-premier-league","tag-football-news","tag-news","tag-south-africa-today-sport","tag-sport","tag-sport-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/b6c264e769c97bd6c39db92861a93985.jpg\"){kind=link}