The Netflix documentary ‘Together: Treble Winners,’ about Manchester City’s treble-winning campaign, includes Pep Guardiola’s thoughts on Inter, Napoli and Milan, and how Italian football has changed.
Pep Guardiola’s view on Italian football emerges in the final episode of ‘Together: Treble Winners,’ a Netflix documentary about Manchester City’s 2022-23 campaign, which ended with a Champions League Final victory over Serie A giants Inter.
The final episode shows the preparation for the Istanbul Final and how Guardiola motivated his players for one of the most important games of their careers.
“We are going to play the final; it’s going to be uncomfortable, guys. Do you think they [Inter] will allow you to do the process? My friend, you will have a mad 90 minutes here,” Guardiola told his players during a training session just a few days before the Final.
“It’s [about] living uncomfortable, living in difficulty. It’s uncomfortable, and you know I am fu*** right.
“Inter play 11 players here guys. Here, 11 players. Italian team in the Final, do you what it is an Italian team in the Final? It’s once in a lifetime, we are not going to live this situation again. It’s difficult. Once in a lifetime. It happened many times? Once in 150 years in English football, one time, just one team did it.”
The Final episode also features an interview with Pep, where the ex-Roma and Brescia midfielder explained why he was concerned about the match with the Nerazzurri: “I was less concerned about how we could attack them [Inter] than how we could avoid them doing it. The players know it. They wait to show me enough clips. I know they follow me; they believe what I say because I don’t lie to them about the team we’re going to face what is going to happen,” he said.
“People think Italy is just defensive. But Inter wasn’t like that. Today in Italy, it’s not like that. Napoli is not like that; they won the Serie A, or Milan, for example. The process and the patterns are really, really good, and we knew it would have been so difficult, not just because they defend or they are Italian teams.
“To achieve winning against Inter, you have to lose. Lose against Tottenham, you know, in the last moment. To win the first Champions League you have to live that, arrive in that moment and do it.”
Guardiola has won the Champions League three times in his coaching career, once at Manchester City and twice at Barcelona.
The former Spain international spent a few years in Italy as a footballer, scoring three goals in 28 Serie A appearances with Brescia and Roma.