Pep Guardiola makes 'massive' admission as Man City face prospect of missing Champions League

Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City's game against Bournemouth on Tuesday is “massive” following their final defeat.

City must recover quickly from the pain of their Wembley defeat to , with qualification on the line. Guardiola's side are in sixth place in the race for a top-five spot to clinch Champions League place, knowing wins in their final two league games will be enough.

After , City go to on the final day of the season, with Guardiola acknowledging the scale of the task facing him and his players. Guardiola said: “It's massive. It’s obvious.

"Ask , , , or . Of course it’s important - massive.

“But now is not the time to talk to the players and get into their minds. Recovery, then the game and then we will see how the players recover and go from there.

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“Now we have to recover quickly. We’re a big club, we're disappointed, but now we don’t have much time to recover for an important game against Bournemouth.

“Of course it’s better to play against Bournemouth after winning the FA Cup. Winning helps winning, but now we have to prove how strong we are with our people.”

Asked about the importance of this summer, in terms of rebuilding his squad to make them title challengers again, Guardiola said: “I always say that, after nine years, you have already rebuilt and we're not the same players or team as when we arrived.

“I think the club has ideas but, from my point of view, now we have two massive important games for the future of this club.

“After that we will take a break, the Club World Cup is in that process and we will make decisions that we have to make.”

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