By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-10-01 17:20:36 | Updated at 2024-10-01 19:21:54
2 hours ago
It was meant as a compliment, but hearing an opposition manager describe Pep Guardiola as a genius, while comparing him to the famous Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi for the way he has reimagined and redesigned football, you get the impression this is a game Slovan Bratislava do not believe they can win.
Vladimir Weiss may be the manager of Slovakia’s most successful club, who won the European Cup Winners Cup back in 1969, but he admitted their main aim when they take on the champions of England will be “to survive” with their “dignity” intact.
“We’re going to play one of the best teams in the world,” said Weiss, whose son, of the same name, started his career in the Manchester City youth team and is now captain of Slovan at the age of 34.
“Pep Guardiola is one of the best coaches in the world and has been building his team for several years. We’re really excited.
“Our main objective is to survive. This is like a fairytale, but when we wake up in the morning it is the reality. We must not only play to enjoy it, we must also be dignified opposition.”
Slovan Bratislava had to progress through four qualifying rounds to make the main draw, a campaign that began on July 10 against Macedonia’s Struga, before they went on to knock out Slovenia’s Celje, Cyprus’ APOEL and Denmark’s FC Midtjylland, each over two legs.
In their first Champions League game, Slovan were thrashed 5-1 by Scottish champions Celtic and, in the pre-match build up, this has the feel of a cup tie against lower-league opposition rather than Champions League peers.
For the critics of this newly expanded and bloated group stage, this is precisely the sort of mismatch they will highlight, even if it is actually the fourth time a Slovakian team has qualified for the Champions League (although Slovan are the first for 14 years).
Asked about being compared to one of Catalonia’s most famous sons, Guardiola smiled and asked “if he (Weiss) had a glass of wine”, but said he took [the compliment] “extremely well”.
Yet, some of it did not sit well with a manager who did not like the undertone of complacency creeping in. “I want to say something honest,” he added. “With the start of this press conference [it seems like] we are going to play a friendly game. I’m a little bit concerned about that in terms of the questions about Gaudi... it’s a competition.
“Nothing is taken for granted, even when the media [and opposition] say how beautiful we are. Nothing comes from that.”
