Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola praised Marco Verratti on Tuesday evening after the 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. The Spanish trainer even admitted to being ‘in love’ with the Italian midfielder of PSG. He calls the controller an ‘exceptional player’.
Verratti formed the midfield on Tuesday along with Ander Herrera and Idrissa Gueye. Guardiola found the 28-year-old Italian’s game impressive. “I must confess that I am in love with Verratti,” Guardiola said during the press conference afterwards. “He is an exceptional player. When he’s under pressure, he always manages to free himself. I am familiar with his character, his personality. I’m glad he’s recovered from his injury. You can always count on him in the build-up. We didn’t hit him hard enough in the first half.”
“He may not be big, but he always knows where the solution lies. That is also the danger of PSG. If we lose the ball, someone like Verratti can send players like Neymar and Messi away with one pass,” Guardiola said of the Italy international, who was replaced by Georginio Wijnaldum after 78 minutes of play on Tuesday evening with Georginio Wijnaldum.
PSG went down due to goals from Gueye and Lionel Messi, who signed for his first goal in the service of the French superpower after the break. “It is impossible to control Leo for 90 minutes, he is unstoppable. If he’s happy in Paris, I’m happy for him,” said Guardiola, who congratulated PSG on the win. “We played a good game and showed character. It was a fantastic match. We should have scored, but we failed to do so. That’s the reason we lost.”