Guardiola best coach in the world, says Amorim ahead of Utd move

Manchester City make the trip to Portugal on Tuesday to take on Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, and the game has an added twist now that manager Ruben Amorim will take charge of Manchester United next week.

He has the chance to endear himself to United fans before he starts if he can get one over his soon to be local rivals.

All the talk about Amorim and his impending departure doesn’t seem to have had too much of an effect on his side, who, just hours after he was named as the new United boss, beat Estrela 5-1 to make it 10 wins from their opening 10 league games.

Amorim hailed City manager Pep Guardiola as the best in the world on Monday.

“(City have) the best team in the world and the best coach in the world,” Amorim told Sport TV on Monday.

“I feel like I’m a better coach (now), unfortunately what I feel is that Pep Guardiola has also become an even better coach, so the gap remains,” Amorim told a news conference.

“Pep Guardiola was an inspiration to many of us coaches, as well as others.”

The only points the Portuguese side have dropped this season came in matchday two of the Champions League when a late goal by Daniel Braganca earned them a 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven.

They won their other two matches 2-0 at home to Lille and the same scoreline away at Sturm Graz, leaving them in eighth place but level on points with Tuesday’s opponents, who sit third thanks to their superior goal difference.

City go into the game on the back of two defeats, although one was in the Carabao Cup when a much-changed side were beaten at Tottenham.

But Guardiola will want to see more from his players in Lisbon than he saw on Saturday when they were beaten 2-1 at Bournemouth, a result that cost them top spot in the Premier League.

They remain undefeated in Europe, following up a goalless draw against Inter Milan in their opening match by impressively beating Slovan Bratislava 4-0 and Sparta Prague 5-0.

City’s only defeat in their last 28 Champions League matches was a penalty shootout defeat to Real Madrid last season while, at the opposite end of the scale, if Sporting can avoid defeat on Tuesday they will equal their longest-ever unbeaten run in the competition – which currently stands at four games between September 1982 and March 1983.

The two sides have only met four times before, and unsurprisingly, it is City who lead the head to head with two wins, one defeat and one draw.

Guardiola claimed before the weekend’s trip to Bournemouth that he only had 13 fit players, which turned out to be a slight exaggeration after naming a bench that included Kevin de Bruyne, Jeremy Doku and Savinho. What was more worrying was the manager admitting his side “couldn’t match the intensity” of the Cherries.

He should expect more of the same high press, all-action style from Amorim’s side, meaning City will have to cope better than they did at the Vitality Stadium. Erling Haaland, who already has 14 goals this season, has been directly involved in 49 goals during his 42 Champions League appearances, with 44 goals and five assists.

Ancelotti a reminder of Milan’s glorious past and uncertain present: AC Milan’s diminished status in European football will be put starkly on view on Tuesday when they travel to Spain to face icon Carlo Ancelotti and the continent’s pre-eminent force Real Madrid.

Crowned kings of Europe seven times, only Madrid have won the Champions League more times than Milan, whose last triumph came under Ancelotti way back in 2007 when a star-studded line-up comfortably beat Liverpool.

That team featured the likes of Paolo Maldini, Kaka and Filippo Inzaghi and was of a completely different league to the one that currently turns out at the San Siro.

And Ancelotti, 65, is also adored as the man who led Milan to the 2003 triumph, which came after a gruelling penalty shootout win against fierce rivals Juventus.

“It will be a special match given my past,” Ancelotti said to Sky in Italy on Monday.

“I think it will be a good match. Milan haven’t started well but they’ve got a good squad with a lot of talent.” Since Milan’s triumph in Athens 17 years ago Madrid have won the Champions League six times, three of those victories coming with Ancelotti in the dugout. Meanwhile Milan’s best run in the competition since was to the 2023 semi-finals, an impressive campaign which was soured by being comprehensively beaten in the last four by local rivals Inter Milan.

Agencies