Inter centre-back Alessandro Bastoni has raved over Man City and Pep Guardiola, ahead of next weekend’s Champions League final.
The star has been speaking about the Premier League champions, whom he’ll come up against in Istanbul in nine days’ time.
Bastoni cannot wait to play, and it seems he has a lot of admiration for City.
He said (quoted by Football Italia): “I appreciate Pep Guardiola so much also for how he makes defenders play.
“I often watch Man City’s games. They don’t have many weak points. Up front, they have Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Haaland, De Bruyne, Grealish, Alvarez… they are scary as a team. But we must try to stop them.”
Inter go into the final in pretty good form, having won six of their last seven Serie A matches.
They reached the Champions League final having put out rivals AC Milan.
They have also beaten Barcelona, Porto and Benfica in this season’s competition.
Bastoni playing well will be key for Inter.
City are expected to dominate the ball and so he, Francesco Acerbi and Matteo Darmian will all have to be on their game.
Bastoni has made a real impression at Inter.
He joined the club back in 2017 from Atalanta, and has developed into one of the best all-round central defenders in Italy.
And his progress has been monitored by City.
In early April, it was claimed that Guardiola really appreciated Bastoni’s profile.
It was then claimed that Inter could be open to selling Bastoni for around £48 million.
Alessandro Bastoni has added fuel to the transfer fire with comments about Pep and Man City
It sounds like Bastoni is full of respect and admiration for Pep and City.
And that’s interesting because of the previous speculation linking him with a move to the Etihad Stadium.
He is surely a player would fit in really well at City.
He is a fantastic ball-player, which is something Pep obviously rates very highly.
But Bastoni is also very physical and dominant in the air.
Given there has been speculation about Aymeric Laporte leaving the club this summer, then Bastoni is surely someone for everyone just to keep an eye on. Especially following these comments.
