![\"Pep](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2.58067217.jpg\")
Pep Guardiola (right) and Jose Mourinho have been managerial rivals for a long time (Tim Keeton\/PA)<\/p>\nCity beat Galatasaray comfortably enough at the Etihad Stadium in their final league-phase match on Wednesday but needed results elsewhere to go in their favour to be sure of finishing in the top eight.<\/p>\n
At one stage their 2-0 success looked set to take them through with something to spare but late goals by Sporting Lisbon and Chelsea left them sweating in eighth place.<\/p>\n
When the final whistle was blown at the Etihad Stadium, Real Madrid were the only team that could still overtake City but they were ultimately beaten by 4-2 in dramatic circumstances by Mourinho\u2019s Benfica.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would send Mourinho a message of gratitude, City manager Guardiola said: \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benfica had actually been heading out of the competition altogether until their goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored their fourth goal in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Guardiola and his players watched those final few moments nervously in the dressing room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all there,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know that Benfica needed a goal to qualify.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the goalkeeper we said, \u2018why you go? Stay in the goal because Madrid can equalise!\u2019 After that, we are out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was a good strategy for Jose, right? To score the the fourth goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola (right) and Jose Mourinho have been managerial rivals for a long time (Tim Keeton\/PA)<\/p>\n
That goal means City avoid the two-legged play-off round in February that proved their undoing last season.<\/p>\n
Guardiola said: \u201cThere are a lot of things to improve but we are really pleased to finish top eight, considering how (tough) the Champions League has become.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started 16 or 17 years ago, the Champions League was a different type of competition than today. Every team is really, really, really, really, really tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really pleased to not play one knockout stage. Hopefully we can arrive in March at our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
They will play Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Bodo\/Glimt or Benfica in the next round.<\/p>\n
The downside for City was the loss of winger Jeremy Doku with a calf injury in the first half.<\/p>\n
The Belgian sparkled in the first half hour and created both goals for Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki.<\/p>\n
Guardiola was unclear on how long he could be sidelined but all but ruled him out of Sunday\u2019s trip to Tottenham.<\/p>\n
![\"Manchester](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2.83242754.jpg\")
Manchester City\u2019s Erling Haaland scored an overdue goal from open play (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, he won\u2019t be ready for a few more days,\u201d said Guardiola.<\/p>\n
Haaland\u2019s goal was his first from open play in 10 games but Guardiola never doubted his star striker.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI love a lot that he missed one clear chance but, after that, had the composure to make this incredible touch. When you\u2019re anxious, you don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City beat Galatasaray comfortably enough at the Etihad Stadium in their final league-phase match on Wednesday but needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-99514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}