City welcome German champions Bayern Munich to the Etihad Stadium tomorrow for the first leg of a last eight tussle between two European heavyweights.
Bayern have recently changed managers, with former Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea boss Tuchel taking over from Julian Nagelsmann.
City v Bayern Munich | Match preview
Since arriving in Bavaria, Tuchel has taken Bayern back to the top of the Bundesliga but has seen his side eliminated from the DFB-Pokal Cup at the hands of Freiburg.
Tuchel and Guardiola faced each other in Germany before Premier League and Champions League battles at City and Chelsea.
During Monday’s media briefing ahead of this latest meeting, our boss stated just what he expects of a Tuchel side.
He said: “He’s so creative with good build-up and connection, good runners and players who are good in the spaces.
“He went to Paris and did really well, not just winning the league but getting final of Champions League, the way they played was good and Chelsea he did a good job.”
Before every match, Guardiola studies the play of his opposite number in great detail.
However, with Tuchel just a few weeks into his new job, there is limited evidence of how the German has asked his team to play.
Guardiola | Great to be alive in Champions League
Despite that, Guardiola doesn’t believe there are too many differences between the football of Tuchel and Nagelsmann but did concede the Bayern could spring a surprise in their lineup.
“Both [Tuchel and Nagelsmann] are so creative with the shape they play,” he said.
“We see with Tuchel, maybe they will do something new tomorrow. We will try to figure out the quality they have in all departments.
“It would’ve been difficult to play Bayern with Nagelsmann and with Tuchel. We don’t pay much attention, we will focus on what we have to improve to do well tomorrow.”
Erling Haaland has scored 44 goals in his debut season at City and is currently the leading scorer in this year’s Champions League with 10 strikes so far.
While Guardiola accepts the striker has given his side an added dimension, he believes City’s hopes of progression rely on being solid in defence.
“He’s so important for us, I can’t deny the influence,” he said.
“It’s the same he can of course help us here in Champions League but also at the same time to win the Premier League and FA Cup too.
Dias | We will fight for everything
“It’s important to have a player from nothing who scores goals but we have scored many goals for many years.
“Monaco, we scored six and were out, Spurs four and out, Madrid five and out.
“We scored many but maybe weren’t solid enough. We scored with a false nine, Sergio [Aguero], David [Silva], Erling [Haaland], wingers too. We always scored goals. It wasn’t a problem in general.”
City v Bayern Munich
City welcome Bayern Munich to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday for a 20:00 (UK) kick-off and you can follow the game across mancity.com and our official app.
We will start live updates at 18:00 on our Matchday Centre and that will run throughout the evening.
Our Matchday Live programme will begin shortly before team news arrives at 18:45. Natalie Pike will be in the studio with Nedum Onuoha, Michael Brown and Steph Houghton to give you a City-centric view on events.
During the game, Alistair Mann and Andy Morrison will talk you through proceedings with our radio commentary offering.
Afterwards, we will bring you all the reaction before short highlights and extended highlights are available from midnight on Thursday.
CITY+ subscribers can watch the entire 90 minutes back from midnight on Thursday.
