Guardiola wants Bayern Munich to beat Liverpool

Pep Guardiola hopes former club Bayern Munich beat Liverpool and join Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Schalke were ruthlessly swept aside by City at the Etihad as an emphatic seven-goal haul saw them cruise into the last eight courtesy of a 10-2 aggregate victory.

City’s progression means there will be at least three English teams in the quarter-final of a Champions League campaign for the first time since 2010/11.

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Liverpool will look to make that four by navigating Wednesday’s last-16 second leg at the Allianz Arena, but Guardiola hopes City’s title rivals stumble at his old club.

“I’m sorry for the English people but I want Bayern to go through,” Guardiola said. “I am part of this club. I love Munich. I love Bayern. I have a lot of friends there.”

Manchester City’s strength in depth and “next-game mentality” puts them in good stead to win an unprecedented quadruple, insists Paul Dickov.

City’s 10-2 aggregate win over Schalke was the biggest-ever by an English side in a Champions League knockout tie.

The emphatic victory was made all the more impressive by City coping with just one recognised central defender, with Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones out injured.

Guardiola has hinted his side can reach new heights when back at full strength, adding: “We had a lot of absences today, a lot of central defenders injured. We just had Danilo, who was incredible.

“I would have liked us to show who were are in the first 20 minutes but I understand the situation sometimes, you cannot expect to play like we were four or five ahead.

Sergio Aguero scored twice against Schalke and the importance of the striker has never been more apparent than in recent weeks as Pep Guardiola has turned to him again and again despite their hectic schedule…

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“We started the first 20-25 minutes trying not to lose what we achieved in Germany, that’s why we didn’t attack, and Leroy [Sane] and Raheem [Sterling] had no intention of being aggressive towards their full-backs.

“But we didn’t lose what we achieved and when we scored the first and the second goals qualification was almost done.

“After that we played in a good level. We didn’t concede chances, even in the last 15 minutes of the first half, and in the second half we were good in the transition and scored seven goals.

“I know that Schalke are in a tough period because they lost the last game and their confidence was low, but even with that situation you have to do your job and we did it.

“Last week we saw what happened with good results in the second leg, so we were serious, we did it and I’m incredibly happy to be in Friday’s draw.”