Pep Guardiola: Man City aim to ‘close a little circle’ by winning Club World Cup

Pep Guardiola wants to “close a little circle” and add the Club World Cup to Manchester City’s trophy haul.

City, who claimed a glorious treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup last season, are in Saudi Arabia for the global competition this week.

They face Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds, the Asian champions, in their semi-final in Jeddah on Tuesday hoping to secure a place in Friday’s final.

City are strong favourites for the tournament but manager Guardiola insists it is far from a foregone conclusion.

Guardiola told reporters at his pre-match press conference: “It’s a pleasure to be here, it’s an honour.

“It’s the first time Man City are here. That shows how difficult it is. We won’t take it for granted. We take it as a privilege.

“Of course we want to win it. It is a trophy we don’t have. We want to close a little circle, that we have won all the trophies we could do. This is the last one.

“I don’t know if we’ll have another chance. Maybe it is a once in a lifetime. It is difficult to be here.

“I think the players know it and we are going to try to perform well tomorrow.”

City’s recent form has been inconsistent with just one win in their last six Premier League games.

Their latest frustrating result came on Saturday as they were pegged back by two late goals to draw 2-2 against Crystal Palace.

That left them five points behind leaders Arsenal but Guardiola is not concerned about performances.

He said: “We prefer better results but, except the Aston Villa game, our performances were excellent.

“We have to improve how we finish our games, be more aware of what we have to do in certain moments but hopefully we can maintain our level of passion and desire to play at a high level with and without the ball against Urawa.”

City are waiting on the fitness of striker Erling Haaland, who has missed the last three games with a foot injury.

Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku have travelled with the squad as they near returns from injury but are unlikely to play.

Midfielder Bernardo Silva said: “Erling is a big player for us, we can’t deny that, but the big strength at City in my time here is, no matter who is missing, we are the same team and we fight for all the titles.”

Silva insisted there was no lack of motivation among the players for the tournament.

He said: “When you play the FIFA Club World Cup there is no tiredness. We are motivated to come here and play the competition.”