Pep Guardiola said Manchester City made a statement with their victory over Paris Saint-Germain, while Mauricio Pochettino denied the speculation over his future had unsettled the French side at the Etihad Stadium.
Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus struck as City responded to a Kylian Mbappe goal to claim a 2-1 win to seal top spot in Champions League Group A.
City will now go through to the knockout stages for a ninth successive year and, despite the defeat, Pochettino, who has been heavily linked with the manager’s job at Manchester United, also saw his PSG side reach the last 16 after RB Leipzig’s 5-0 success at Club Brugge.
Man City, after reaching last year’s final and losing to Chelsea, appear to mean business again in Europe.
Asked if City’s victory over such a star-studded PSG side sent out a statement, Guardiola said: “Of course. PSG – what a team, what players, what can I say? We tried to keep these players far away from our goal. When they are close to your goal, they can do anything.
“Except for five minutes after we conceded, when they went for the knockout on the counter-attack but couldn’t finish, we made a really top performance.
“We are happy to be in the next stage. Congratulations to everyone in the club. It’s many years of being there.
“Now we will focus on the Premier League and try to arrive in February in the best condition possible to go to the quarter-finals.”
It was a frustrating night in Manchester for PSG boss Pochettino in a week in which he has been heavily linked with the managerial vacancy across the city at Manchester United.
He denied the speculation over his future had unsettled the squad.
The former Tottenham manager said: “The players know very well the situation – we are living in a business in which rumours are there, sometimes negative, sometimes positive. That is what we say about the rumours.”
