Xavi Reveals Club That May Win Champions League This Season, Gives Reasons

Barcelona legend, Xavi Hernandez has tipped Pep Guardiola to win the Champions League with Manchester City this season.

Xavi said that having lost out on the race to win the Premier League, Guardiola will now set Manchester City’s focus on winning the Champions League.

City trail Liverpool by a whopping 14 points on the Premier League standings, a lead that looks insurmountable due to the Reds’ incredible form.

Xavi played under Guardiola during the tactician’s tenure at Barcelona between 2008-12.

He believes his former boss will now go out to win the Champions League and will likely prioritise squad selection.

“Pep is a born winner,” Xavi said to the the Mirror.

“It will hurt him that Manchester City are so far behind Liverpool in the league – and he won’t give up.

“He will be realistic though. The gap is a big one and at the moment it doesn’t look likely that they can make it three titles in a row.

“With that in mind, I think there’s a big chance Pep will prioritise the Champions League.

“They will be two big games coming up against Real Madrid – and maybe there will be a chance to rest players before these games that they wouldn’t have if they were in a title race.”

Xavi feels that Guardiola’s team want the Champions League more than they crave for the domestic honours and victory in the competition would elevate Man City as a club.

“Pep will want to win every trophy that he can – but if you’d asked him at the start of the season what he would prefer, I’m sure he would have said the Champions League,” he added.

“He joked with Klopp that maybe Manchester City and Liverpool should swap trophies this year – but there was some truth in that joke, I think.

“He’s won every trophy in England with Manchester City and he knows that winning the Champions League with them would take them to the next level as a club.”