Pep Guardiola happy to face Barcelona or Manchester City
Thursday 17 March 2016 17:44, UK
Pep Guardiola says he "doesn't care" who Bayern Munich face in the quarter finals of the Champions League.
Bayern booked their place in Friday's draw after battling back from two goals against Juventus on Wednesday night.
Thomas Muller scored in the 90th minute to force extra time before Thiago and Kingsley Coman netted to secure a 4-2 win on the night.
Guardiola, who will leave the German champions in the summer to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City, could be handed the prospect of facing his new employers or his former club Barcelona in the last eight.
However, the 45-year-old Catalonian has no qualms about facing either club.
"If you want to reach the semi-finals then you have to be ready to beat any opponent," said Guardiola.
"But we are there. We made it. A minute later and we would have been out."
City saw off Dynamo Kiev 3-1 on aggregate to secure their place in the pot and the chance to put one over his successor would no doubt appeal to Pellegrini.
The Chilean insisted earlier in the week he would have no concerns coming up against Bayern despite winning just one of their four recent meetings.
"Facing him would not be a problem, no," Pellegrini told the Sunday Mirror.
"First of all, we have to see the draw. All of them (the quarter-finalists) are very good but I prefer to avoid two or three teams, although I won't tell you which ones. You can guess.."
Barcelona saw off Arsenal in the round of 16 to extend their unbeaten run to 38 games and manager Luis Enrique can call upon the stellar strike force of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, a trio with 106 goals between them this season.
The La Liga leaders are also looking to become the first team to defend the European Cup in the Champions League era and Enrique is happy to take on all comers.
"The only team I don't want to face is Barca, and it's a certainty that we won't," said Enrique after Wednesday's 3-1 win at the Nou Camp.
"Obviously we have unique players but in the end the great thing about this team is they work collectively in both attack and defence."
Spain have two other representatives in Friday's draw, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
Real, 10-time winners of the European Cup, squeezed past Roma to get through with coach Zinedine Zidane no doubt dreaming of leading the club to an 11th crown, having scored a memorable winning goal to deliver their ninth back in 2002.
It was city rivals Atletico who Real beat in Lisbon to win 'La Decima' in May 2014 and the pair could come up against each other again this year.
Diego Simeone's side are out-performing Real in the league but needed a penalty shoot-out to see off PSV Eindhoven in the round of 16 following the first-ever Champions League tie to finish goalless over both legs.
Paris St Germain, meanwhile, can turn their full attention to winning their first European Cup with Laurent Blanc's side having already wrapped up the Ligue 1 title in style.
Inspired by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG secured the crown last weekend with a 9-0 hammering of Troyes and will now be looking to complete their transition into a continental super-power after defeating knocking out Chelsea in the previous round.
The two outsiders are Wolfsburg and Benfica, and although neither will be taken lightly the big-hitters will surely be hoping to be drawn against them.
Dieter Hecking's Wolfsburg saw off Gent, as expected, in the round of 16, but are languishing down in eighth in the Bundesliga and have lost nine of their 26 league games this season.
Benfica beat Zenit St Petersburg to reach this stage for the first time since 2012, having been eliminated at the group stage for the past three years.
The first legs of the quarter-finals will be played on April 5 and 6, with the return legs on April 12 and 13.
