Manchester City vs. Barcelona: Pep Guardiola's Key Pre-Match Presser Comments

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wants his players to approach Tuesday's UEFA Champions League match against Barcelona as a final and believes his team will have to be perfect in order to beat the La Liga champions.

The two teams met on the previous matchday at the iconic Camp Nou, and the Catalans ran out to an easy 4-0 win, continuing their perfect run in Group C.

City enter the clash in second place in the group, just one point ahead of Borussia Monchengladbach, and Guardiola stressed the importance of Tuesday's match, per Andy Hampson of the Press Association:

Per Goal's Sam Lee, the City boss knows his team will be in for a challenge:

The Catalans embarrassed City the last time these two teams met, taking advantage of some key blunders and dominating proceedings in midfield. The Citizens barely threatened Marc-Andre ter Stegen's goal, and the hosts could have scored more goals had they pushed the pedal harder.

Guardiola didn't think his team played that badly, however:

Once again, the Sky Blues finished a match against the La Liga giants with 10 men, their fourth red card in the last five meetings with the Blaugrana. This time, it was goalkeeper Claudio Bravo who got sent off, and he will be suspended for Tuesday's clash as a result.

Per Guardiola, discipline will be a key to the match, as Stuart Brennan of the Manchester Evening News shared:

Bravo's replacement will be veteran stopper Willy Caballero. Guardiola feels comfortable with the former Malaga star between the sticks, per the team's official Twitter account:

The manager also turned his attention to star striker Sergio Aguero, who started the match at the Camp Nou on the bench but has since rediscovered his scoring touch, bagging a brace in the 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

He believes the Argentina international can become even better and wants to help him do that, although he won't make any comparisons to Barcelona's ace striker Luis Suarez:

A reporter tried to steer the press conference toward Yaya Toure's agent, Dimitri Seluk, who made headlines recently for yet another rant against Guardiola, per Simon Mullock of the Daily Mirror.

Seluk said Guardiola is taking revenge and humiliating his client and also said he “makes you believe he is your best friend—and then he betrays you.” Reporters were hoping for a response, but Guardiola turned them down:

Monchengladbach will host Celtic on Tuesday and are expected to beat the Scottish champions rather easily.

Should the Germans win and City lose, the Citizens will likely need to beat Monchengladbach in Germany on the fifth matchday, as their opponents will finish the group stages against a Barcelona team that is expected to have locked up the top spot in the group by that point.

That makes Tuesday's clash with Barcelona a key match and one the Citizens can't afford to lose—or their first season in the Champions League under Guardiola could come to an early and abrupt end.