Soccer Football - Champions League - Group G - Manchester City v RB Leipzig - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - November 28, 2023 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola REUTERS/Carl Recine/ File photo
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hailed Ange Postecoglou, whose Tottenham Hotspur side visit the Etihad on Sunday, as a manager who made football a better place and whom he had watched since they first met in Japan years ago.
Champions City are second in the Premier League, a point behind Arsenal, with Spurs fifth and three points adrift of their weekend opponents after losing their last three matches and dropping off the top.
The trip north will be Tottenham's toughest test yet under their new manager and Guardiola said he was sure there would be plenty of entertainment.
"I met (him) just once in three or four pre-seasons ago when we played in Japan against Yokohama," recalled the Spaniard of their only previous encounter.
"Ange was the manager and I saw some clips before. It was the second pre-season game and I said 'wow, there are things that I like'.
"I said to the players (then) I know we are not ready but we will face a good team in challenges, intense in buildup and use the keeper to make the process."
City won that game but Guardiola said it made him take notice and he had followed Postecoglou's progress at Celtic and now Tottenham.
"I think he makes football a better place, people like Ange," he added.
"I’ve said many times that I am a manager but at the same time a spectator, and I enjoy a lot the way they (Spurs) play, the approach they have."
Postecoglou repaid the compliment in his separate press conference, saying he relished the chance of playing against Guardiola.
"That's the kind of arena you want to be in, measuring yourself against the very best," he said.
Guardiola said he did not expect Tottenham to change their style, despite defeats and key absences due to injury, and dismissed as a joke a comment from Postecoglou that he was 'copying Pep'.
"Ask him if he's going to change the way they play against us? Absolutely not. This is not going to happen, it would be a surprise," he added.
Guardiola said England defender John Stones could feature after being on the bench for the last two games while Mateo Kovacic had returned to training earlier in the week and Matheus Nunes was still a way off being fit.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
