Manchester City opened their Champions League campaign with a 0-0 draw with Inter – and after the game, Pep Guardiola was asked about previous transfer speculation around one Nerazzurri star.
Manchester City had a tough time last night in their first league phase game against the Italian champions.
Pep Guardiola‘s side dominated the ball as is usually the case in games. But Inter stood firm throughout, and restricted City to only a few really good chances.
Ilkay Gundogan probably had the best two towards the end of the game, but could not convert.
Pep was relatively pleased with his side’s performance despite the players being unable to breach their opponents, and he will now turn his attention to the huge game with Arsenal this weekend.
Hopefully, Erling Haaland will have a more productive game against the Gunners, after being well marshalled by Alessandro Bastoni last night.
Pep Guardiola says he has never tried to sign Alessandro Bastoni from Inter for Man City
Inter were very impressive defensively last night.
They were nice and compact, and gave City very little room in the middle.
Their backline stood strong against arguably the best striker in the game right now, with Erling Haaland failing to have much of an impact in the end.
Bastoni was particularly good, and he is a player who has actually been linked with a transfer to City in the past.
It was reported in April 2023 that City were very keen on the centre-back.
A couple of months later, Bastoni added fuel to the fire as he complimented Pep and the way he works with his defenders, saying ahead of the 2023 Champions League final: “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.”
Last night though, Pep was asked: “Is it true that you tried your best to bring Alessandro Bastoni to Man City in the past?” (via Fabrizio Romano). Pep answered: “That’s not true.”
Man City should keep an eye on Bastoni
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So City have never made an attempt to sign Bastoni previously – but the club could do much worse than to monitor him going forwards.
Bastoni looked a real class act last night for Inter and he has been performing at a high level for quite some time now, having been named in the Serie A Team of the Year in 2020/21 and 2022/23.
£165,000-a-week star Bastoni has a contract with Inter until 2028 so any future move by City would likely be extremely costly.
But there may come a point in the next couple of years where the club need to sign long-term replacements for Nathan Ake, John Stones and Manuel Akanji who are all in and around the age of 30.
Bastoni is a fearsome central defender who also has those ball-playing qualities that are so appreciated by Pep.
