Pep Guardiola is determined to cap Manchester City’s “extraordinary” Champions League triumph by winning a first ever UEFA Super Cup.
Last season’s treble-clinching victory against Inter Milan secured Wednesday’s clash against Europa League victors Sevilla at Olympiacos’ Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Greece.
Guardiola can become the first manager to win the competition with three different clubs but this is a first taste of Super Cup action for City.
“To be here in this press conference ahead of tomorrow you have to do two extraordinary things: win the Champions League or Europa League,” he said in Piraeus.
“I have to say this is not easy. Maybe for Sevilla it’s easier because they have won a lot of Europa Leagues. I remember once when they beat Barcelona 3-0 in the Super Cup.
“They have a special character. The resilience in the bad moments, to play the finals. It’s not always necessary to play top level always but they have something in their DNA that makes this team and this club different.
“They are mentally so strong but you cannot imagine how incredibly happy we are to be here, to play this game because you have to win the Champions League.
“This is an opportunity we want to take because who knows when we will be back here to play this tournament.”
Sevilla won on their Super Cup debut in 2006 but the perennial Europa League winners are now looking to avoid a sixth straight defeat on this stage.
There are a number of familiar faces in Jose Luis Mendilibar’s squad, including former City players Fernando and Jesus Navas.
“Knowing what I know now, maybe I would have extended the contract when we were together after the first season,” Guardiola said of Sevilla captain Navas.
“We took a decision because we were an old team in that period. We needed to refresh mentally the team. That’s why we make in that year a lot of changes.
“But it’s incredible for him to be at 37, 38 playing and I know how committed he is to his club, captain of Sevilla. I am really pleased to see him tomorrow and say hi to him.”
City are looking to lift their first silverware of the season having lost the Community Shield on penalties to Arsenal.
Stefan Ortega started that match and the back-up goalkeeper is expected to get the nod in Piraeus amid interest from German giants Bayern Munich.
“It would be a problem to lose him first of all because of the quality,” Guardiola said of Ortega, who joined from Arminia Bielefeld last summer.
“We bring him here because (head of goalkeeping) Xabi Mancisidor sent me the clips and said ‘this is a keeper that maybe we need’.
“I didn’t know him. He was playing for a side relegated from the Bundesliga and I saw him and said ‘ah, looks good’. But since day one I said ‘what a keeper we have’.
“You know how many important games he played and how he saved us. We don’t want to sell him, we don’t want to loan him. We need him.
“But like many cases it depends on three parts because after that if we lose Stefan two weeks out (from the end of) the market, we have to go pick up a keeper and it’s not easy now.
“You have to pay transfer (fee) and it’s not easy. We want him. I am sorry but we want him.”
Kante a shock inclusion in France's Euro 2024 squad
N'Golo Kante has been named as a surprise inclusion in France's squad for Euro 2024.
Kante has not played for Les Bleus since 2022, but despite the long exodus from the squad, the Al Ittihad midfielder has been named in head coach Didier Deschamps' 26-man squad for the upcoming tournament in Germany.
The squad is headlined by Kylian Mbappe, who has plied his trade for Paris Saint-Germain since 2017 but looks set to move to Real Madrid in the upcoming window. Mbappe's PSG team-mate Bradley Barcola makes the squad for the first time.
Also making the journey to Germany will be Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann and William Saliba, though Bayern Munich's Lucas Hernandez misses out through injury.
Among the notable exclusions are Chelsea's Christopher Nkunku and Crystal Palace's Michael Olise, who both miss out despite recently returning to fitness in the Premier League.
France will play two warm-up friendlies against Luxembourg and then Canada, before they kick off their Euro 2024 campaign against Austria on June 17. France will also face the Netherlands and Poland in the group stage as they look to reclaim the European Championships crown they lost to Italy in the 2020 edition.
France squad
Alphonse Areola (West Ham), Mike Maignan (Milan), Brice Samba (Lens); Jonathan Clauss (Marseille), Theo Hernandez (Milan), Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool), Jules Kounde (Barcelona), Ferland Mendy (Madrid), Benjamin Pavard (Inter), William Saliba (Arsenal), Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich); Eduardo Camavinga (Madrid), Youssouf Fofana (Monaco), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico), N'Golo Kante (Al Ittihad), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Aurelien Tchouameni (Madrid), Warren Zaire-Emery (Paris Saint-Germain); Bradley Barcola (Paris Saint-Germain), Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain), Olivier Giroud (Milan), Randal Kolo Muani (Paris Saint-Germain), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain), Marcus Thuram (Inter).
Last-chance saloon for Napoli in European race
Napoli's Serie A title defence has long since ended, and they must beat Fiorentina on Friday to have any hope of playing in Europe next season.
Napoli strolled to the Scudetto last year, clinching the title with five games to spare and finishing 16 points ahead of runners-up Lazio.
This time around, it was Inter who wrapped up the league with five games remaining, while Napoli sit ninth in the standings, 41 points adrift of the leaders with a Europa Conference League spot their only hope of playing in Europe.
Napoli are without a win in their last five games, though even if they can get back to winning ways, their European hopes would be out of their own hands due to having played a game more than Fiorentina.
Fiorentina have won three of their last five league matches, and won the previous meeting between the sides 3-1, which could prove vital they end the season level on points and the head-to-head record comes into play.
Vincenzo Italiano's side have already qualified for this season's Europa Conference League final, where they face Greek side Olympiacos in Athens.
The Viola, unbeaten in Europe this season, are aiming to end the league campaign on a high and take that momentum into the final - they are looking to go one better than last year when they lost to West Ham in the final.
Napoli are likely to be without top scorer Victor Osimhen, who is a serious doubt due to a muscular problem. Fiorentina, meanwhile, welcome back Andre Belotti who missed Monday's win over Monza.
Busby aiming to reset culture, objectives ahead of World Cup Qualifying campaign
A reset of the culture as well as objectives of the Jamaica Senior Women’s National Team or “Reggae Girlz” is of paramount importance to returning Head coach Hubert Busby Jr.
Busby Jr was rehired last week after previously serving in the role in 2021 and won’t have a lot of time to settle back into the role as his first assignment will be to navigate a pair of international friendlies with global football powerhouses Brazil on June 1 and 4.
The two teams last met at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup where a 0-0 draw secured the Reggae Girlz spot as the first Caribbean nation to ever advance from the group stage at a World Cup.
The squad for these two friendlies can be looked at as a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, 18 of the members of the squad were in that history-making World Cup squad but, on the other hand, they haven’t played together since that tournament which was nine months ago.
“I think coming back in with two weeks to go, there is a lot of work to do in a short period of time and the idea that the core of this particular group hasn’t been together in nine months so there’s a lot of work that we’re doing now behind the scenes to get up to speed in terms of watching Brazil and getting the players organized,” he said in an interview with JFFLive on Wednesday.
Busby Jr then went into detail on two of his major objectives in his second stint as Head coach of the Reggae Girlz.
“More importantly, I think, some of the objectives for us is to reset the culture, reset the objectives in terms of what we’re looking to do and understand, I know it’s the most used cliché in sports, but whatever we do, we really have to stick to a process of how we look to get back to the next World Cup in 2027,” explained Busby Jr.
“This is just the first part in utilizing each and every window, making sure that, regardless of the results, we are hitting our targets of what we want to accomplish heading into the World Cup Qualifiers,” he added.
Brazil will be using these friendlies as preparation for the Olympic Games where they won consecutive silver medals at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
These two friendlies will also be the last home international appearances for perhaps the greatest female footballer ever, Marta, who has announced that she will retire after the Paris Games.
“This is going to be a little bit of a send-off match for them. It will also be Marta’s last game in Brazil in front of her home crowd before she retires and there’s a little bit of a revenge factor from what happened at the World Cup so we’ve got to manage all of that,” Busby Jr said.
“We’re going to have these three training sessions and prepare the team for these matches,” he ended.
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