Guardiola plays down Howe praise and speaks on ‘really nice guy’ Semenyo

Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has played down praise from Eddie Howe after the Newcastle boss claimed his side are the hardest team in the world to play over two legs.

The two Premier League giants meet on Tuesday night at St James’ Park for the first clash, with a trip to Wembley at stake.

The Magpies ran out 2-1 winners last time these two met in November, with Harvey Barnes netting the winner.

Since then, City have gone on to establish themselves as Arsenal’s biggest challengers for the title, while Newcastle have overturned their poor start to the campaign to drag themselves back into the top half of the table.

Speaking ahead of the match, Guardiola admitted he was losing sleep over how to stop a formidable Toon team in front of their home crowd.

He said: “I didn’t sleep last night thinking about how my genius can come up with a plan for Eddie Howe.

“Many years since Eddie Howe took over, look how many games they have won in the last minute – the push from the crowd. It’s always been like that for a long time.

“In that stadium is special. The semi-finals, playing Arsenal and Chelsea, it would be as difficult as Newcastle is. I don’t think it should be any different.

“It’s not about winning or not winning trophies, it’s about how the team grows up, how the team is better.

“Last season we didn’t deserve to win more than just one trophy, because we didn’t play good. The satisfaction to win a trophy when we are not playing good can happen – knock-out stages being lucky.

“It’s not about that, believe me. We are here to make the team play better, the satisfaction to make a good performance for ourselves and our fans to say, ‘We had fun during 95 minutes!’ That is the point.

“And the next game, things that we can do better, do it better! That is the target, and all the time it has been like that. And when you are in that process, at the end you fight for the titles and can win it.”

Semenyo ready to go

Guardiola will have new signing Antoine Semenyo to call on for the trip to Tyneside, after the rules changed last year allowing players who move clubs to play for their new side in the same competition.

The former Bournemouth man scored and assisted on his debut in the 10-1 FA Cup thrashing of Exeter at the weekend, and already looks at home in a City kit.

Semenyo scored the winner against Tottenham with his final touch for the Cherries in the Premier League, and Guardiola will be hoping his prolific form continues into the second half of the season.

On the new signing, he said: “The impression was that he is a really nice guy. Few actions he showed was what he showed in Bournemouth and hopefully he can continue doing that here.”