Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admits Wembley holds a special place in his heart
Friday 10 March 2017 19:36, UK
Pep Guardiola says he would love to return to Wembley Stadium as Manchester City manager.
Guardiola won the Champions League with Barcelona - both as a player and a coach - at the home of English football.
City will book a place a semi-final place at Wembley next month if they can emerge victorious from their FA Cup last-eight tie at Middlesbrough on Saturday.
Guardiola said: "It's so beautiful and that's why I'd like to be there. As a football player I won our first Champions League in Wembley, the old Wembley, and as a manager I won my second Champions League there, so of course Wembley is special for me, definitely.
"When I was a kid seeing English football playing in Wembley in all competitions, important games, the tradition there with the two managers going out, I loved that.
"It's a traditional stadium and of course we'll be pleased, and not just to come back and remember what we have done. Playing the semi-finals there will be nice and after, if we are able, to play the final."
After 10 league games without a win Middlesbrough slipped into the bottom three of the Premier League but they did manage to snatch a 1-1 draw when they met City at the Etihad Stadium in November.
Guardiola said: "They are really well organised and long balls make Middlesbrough so dangerous. Adama [Traore] is so fast on the counter.
"We were not able to win here in our game. In the first half we played amazing but we didn't score a goal and in the second half we had chances but we didn't play like the first half.
"In the last minute they scored a goal. So we have to focus and play as well as possible."
Guardiola, meanwhile, has denied suggestions he has made up his mind about the future of Joe Hart, insisting the England goalkeeper's situation will be reviewed in the summer.
Hart made a season-long loan move to Torino last summer and told Sky Sports in December he had been sent out on loan because he was not wanted and did not have enough time to make a permanent switch away from the Etihad.
His replacement Claudio Bravo has struggled, with Willy Caballero, whose contract expires in the summer, preferred to the Chilean for seven of City's last nine games.
Guardiola claimed at the beginning of the month he is "so happy" with the two goalkeepers he currently has at his disposal but has repeated that nothing has been decided on Hart's future.
He said: "I have said many times we will explain about all the cases at the end of the season - the cases of the players that are here, the players who are happy or unhappy and the players who are on loan.
"Joe is a player for Manchester City and we are going to decide at the end of the season."
