Unai Emery previewed the challenge of clashing with two big figures in the footballing world.
Aston Villa host **Man City**in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, and it will mark the reunion of Emery with Pep Guardiola. His side might have lost 1-0 and 2-1 in their last two trips to Villa Park,, but the manager of the Citizens continues to command great respect from his counterpart.
The Villans must also be ready to try and defend against Erling Haaland, who has scored 15 times across 11 Premier League and Champions League appearances. It will be a very taxing task.
“Always it’s very, very difficult to face Pep.
“Firstly, because he is managing the better team in the world, with the better players in the world, and secondly because he is really, for me, the best coach in the world. He is competitive, tactically, with the ball, how he is building every year. His team is, fantastic, amazing, he is really a genius.
“He is humble. As a person, I appreciate him a lot. He is humble. With everything he is achieving, he is humble, and respectful always, with me, very respectful, and this is the most important, firstly, as a person, how he is as a person. He is a fantastic guy, and as a professional, a coach, he is the best.”
“Collectively we should try to be very focused to stop him. We will prepare the game individually to try to get duels and stopping him. Getting duels individually maybe could be not enough to stop him.
“We will need some cover with other players, and then tactically we can stop him in different ways, or the goalkeeper saving the last one when he can beat our structure tactically or the duels we can have or even the cover we can use.”