Pep Guardiola names four possible Champions League winners after Man City exit | OneFootball

With Manchester City now eliminated from the Champions League, Pep Guardiola has named four sides he believes could go on to win this season's competition.

City were among the pre-tournament favourites but have fallen wildly below expectations all year and, after scraping through the reformatted league phase, were dumped out of the knockout round play-offs by current holders Real Madrid.

Guardiola's focus is now on qualifying for next year's iteration of the tournament but, as he reflected on his side's early elimination, he backed four teams to battle for the trophy.

"Of course Madrid are a contender, definitely," Guardiola began. "But there are other good teams around. It will be an interesting Champions League season. Madrid are always favourites for this trophy. There are other teams who are having a very good season but Madrid are always favourites.

"But there are other teams that are playing very well. Liverpool are having a really good season up until now, Barcelona are amazing, Paris Saint-Germain, with my friend Luis [Enrique] in charge, are on the march. But obviously, Madrid are favourites."

Interestingly, there was no mention of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, who finished third in the group stage behind Liverpool and Barcelona.

With City out, attention turns to maintaining their place inside the Premier League's top four. Retaining their title for a fifth consecutive season is out of the question after six defeats in eight matches – the worst run of Guardiola's career – but 16 points from the last 21 available has greatly improved the season's outlook.

Getting Erling Haaland back fit and into the side will no doubt aid City's cause – the impact of the Norwegian's absence at the Bernabeu painfully evident as they struggled to make any real impression on Madrid's backline.