Guardiola coy on facing City as possible opponents

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola is coy about potentially facing his future employers Manchester City when the quarter-finals draw for the Champions League is made on Friday.

Bayern’s stunning four-goal fightback on Wednesday at the Allianz Arena sealed their 4-2 last 16, second leg, win over Juventus for a 6-4 aggregate victory.

The fightback keeps alive Guardiola’s chances of bringing the Champions League trophy to Munich at the third and final attempt before his high-profile move to City next season.

But Guardiola baulked when asked whether he would now like to face his future employers in the quarter-finals or the Champions League final in Milan on May 28.

“I can’t decide that. We’ll have to see what comes from the draw,” he said tersely ahead of Friday’s quarter-final draw in Nyon at 1200 (1100 GMT) local time.

After their 3-1 aggregate win over Dynamo Kiev in the last 16, City could draw Bayern in the last eight which would cause an awkward situation for Guardiola.

The 45-year-old was photographed in Amsterdam last week meeting with City’s director of sport Txiki Begiristain on a clandestine trip.

Since revealing in January that he will join City, Guardiola claimed he would focus solely on Bayern until the end of the season as he looks to add to the five trophies he had won in three seasons.

Bayern can make history this season by winning the Bundesliga title for a fourth year in a row.

Meanwhile, Bayern’s director of sport Matthias Sammer has launched an extraordinary attack on ex-Bayern president Uli Hoeness for saying Guardiola wants to sign off with the treble.

Bayern became the first German club to win the Champions League, German Cup and Bundesliga titles in 2013 under Guardiola’s predecessor Jupp Heynckes.

Speaking at a function to honour Heynckes in Moenchengladbach last Sunday, Hoeness had said that Guardiola is determined to repeat the 2013 treble, a claim Sammer took umbrage with.

“What Hoeness is saying is different (to what I hear),” said Sammer.

“Saying we should win the treble is nonsense – no more, no less.

“I am with Pep everyday and I can’t confirm that (Guardiola wants to win the treble). It’s simply not true.

“How often in the history of Bayern Munich have we won this ridiculous treble?

“Once! We put in a lot of effort, but it is completely unrealistic to identify things like that.”