Pep Guardiola is preparing to face a Liverpool side featuring Mo Salah for the last time, with the Man City manager lauding him as “one of the greatest” in history.
Salah is playing out his Liverpool farewell tour, having announced that he will be leaving the club this summer – a year early.
It means he has a maximum of 15 games left until he departs on a free transfer, starting with Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final against storied rivals Man City.
The Egyptian has 13 goals and eight assists in 25 meetings with Man City, his second-highest goal involvement rate of any opponent in his career.
And speaking in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola was asked whether Salah had given him more headaches than any other player, replying: “Absolutely.
“One of the greatest. The numbers, the consistency, what a player. Incredible human being.
“Goals, assists, absolute, absolute legend for of course Liverpool Football Club but for the Premier League, for all he has done.
“I think it’s a good moment to say goodbye to him in this country tomorrow.
“He deserves incredible, incredible recognition for what he has given to the world of football, especially in this country.”
Despite Man City‘s own struggles this season, they find themselves in a much stronger position than Liverpool heading into Saturday’s early kickoff.
They hold a 12-point lead over Arne Slot‘s side in the Premier League despite playing one game fewer and are strong favourites to advance to the FA Cup semi-finals.
But Guardiola insists Liverpool remain one of Man City‘s fiercest rivals and their record-breaking summer spend last year will ensure that is the case for “many, many years.”
“So many times they’ve been the rival, the biggest, biggest one,” he told reporters.
“They made an incredible investment last summer to be there for many, many years. It’s a top contender, top-class players, all of them.
“Hopefully we can perform at the level we did against Arsenal to reach the next step [in the FA Cup].”
Man City are set to be without Josko Gvardiol on Saturday and face doubts over two more centre-backs in Ruben Dias and John Stones.
