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Manchester – Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City offer for an unprecedented quadruple will be defined by Wednesday Champions League showdown with Tottenham and their next two matches in the Premier League.
Guardiola's team is competing to win the four major trophies after winning the League Cup, reaching the FA Cup final and keeping in touch with Premier League leader Liverpool.
The city's next hurdle on the road to immortal football is the return leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Tottenham, which is trying to bridge the 1-0 deficit at Etihad Stadium.
Even if they beat Tottenham to qualify for the semifinals, City will not have time to rest on its laurels as they will face the Spurs again in the Premier League on Saturday before getting return to Manchester United next Wednesday.
With two points ahead of Liverpool and City, who have a game in hand, Guardiola has acknowledged that the next seven days will decide whether his team will continue his quadruple pursuit in the final days of the season.
"Certainly, if we do not win these games, we will be out of two competitions, and I have been feeling this for weeks," Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday.
"Last season in this period, we were already champions.This season we had an incredible opponent in the Premier League with Liverpool.The two teams deserve to be champions, but only one will get it.
"After what we did last season, I'm surprised we have 83 points, the goal is 98, otherwise we will not be champions.
"Tottenham is incredible and we are not resting, we have played nine, 10 or 11 more games than Liverpool, and even with that, I love this challenge."
After winning the Premier League record-breaking last season, Guardiola could have forgiven for focusing on Europe as he's looking to win the Champions League for the third time as boss – and the first since his triumph in Barcelona in 2011.
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But the city boss says the Premier League remains his main goal.
And Guardiola, who cut the figure for much of his press conference, refused to accept that he was underperforming in the European club competition.
"The Champions League is tough, we fail all the time, sorry guys, I'm a failure!" he said in an explosion of sarcasm.
"Do not win the Champions League at Bayern Munich was a big failure, what can I say?
"Should I win?" The president said I had to win the Champions League three times in a row!
"Honestly, I did not come here to win the Champions League, I came here to play as we played the last 20 months.
"The Premier League is the most important title, to be there every three days in competition."
Guardiola's bad mood included a rant in the Premier League for not treating England's teams in Europe on an equal footing.
The Spaniard is upset that Tottenham has had more time to rest and get ready before both legs.
"They had six days to prepare for the first game, we had two, and now they played Saturday, we played Sunday," Guardiola said.
"I do not know why the Premier League does not put the matches at 12:30 on Saturday."
The irritability of Guardiola may have been brought about by a question about his past: Tottenham was "Harry Kane's team" in reference to the importance of the English captain.
Kane will miss the return match due to ankle ligament injuries suffered against City last week, but Guardiola was not going to give more motivation to Mauricio Pochettino's team.
"Tottenham without Kane is the same strong team that they had three seasons ago, two seasons and this season," he said.
Guardiola knows that Tottenham will pose a serious threat to City's quadruple dream over the next few days. He called on the Etihad crowd to create an intimidating atmosphere.
"I know how focused the players are, I know the desire to go into the semifinals," he said.
"Every time we played in the Champions League, the atmosphere was incredible, so we need it.
"I want to see if our fans really want to go to the semifinals."
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