Why Man City are envious of Sevilla amid Pep Guardiola underdogs claim

Pep Guardiola said Manchester City would love to have the European record of Tuesday's opponents Sevilla as he was asked about his side's chances in this season's Champions League.

Guardiola won two Champions League titles at Barcelona but hasn't won it since — including in his six years with City. And when he sat down to preview the Group G opener with Sevilla, he knew the questions were coming about the importance of winning the Champions League and whether the task gets harder with every year City don't win it.

"Win it or not win it. F--- I don’t know," said Guardiola. "Sport not just football gives you another opportunity. It's a difficult competition, the club is proud to be here again and we are going to try again.

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"We try since day one to perform well. If we are going to win, I don’t know, it will depend on the pitch, tomorrow and against Dortmund and Copenhagen. It depends on our performance. If we are not good we go home and get punishments from fans and media and keep going. We move forward. Last season we fought to be here and tomorrow we play a team who did too, we know how difficult it will be."

At that point, Guardiola talked up Sevilla, who have an impressive record in the Europa League in the past decade and have been competitive in the Champions League.

"Teams in Spain are so tough, they dominate Europe in 10 or 15 years," he added.

"I’d love to have their history in Europe, City are far away from Sevilla in Europe. Tomorrow we don’t miss one chance to play in this spectacular stadium and we try and do a good game and try to do three points."

Despite Guardiola's warning, Sevilla have just one point from four La Liga games this