(CNN) — Liverpool star Mohamed Salah includes a message for Manchester City director Pep Guardiola — that the Champions League is football’s»biggest competition.»
It is often argued that Guardiola’s stewardship of all City will be quantified by the team winning its first Champions League title, although the Catalan recently said he’d pick winning the English Premier League over European success.
Talking to reporters earlier that month, Guardiola likened Liverpool’s Champions League triumph with a trip to the casino, comparing it with all the spin of roulette wheel.
Though the Premier League involves playing 38 games against national rivals, Liverpool played with 13 games to win the Champions League, emerging from a group comprising Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade, before beating Bayern Munich, Porto, Barcelona and Tottenham.
Guardiola, that won the Champions League twice as coach of Barcelona, insisted the Premier League was»the most important thing, the stand-out competition, since it’s every weekend» As a trainer Guardiola last won the Champions League in 2011.
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However, Salah, who believed Liverpool’s opening goal in the 2-0 win over Tottenham at the Champions League final in Madrid, contrasts with the Spaniard, asserting the prestige of winning the competition trumps England’s domestic crown.
«Frankly, I didn’t understand that he (Guardiola) stated that, however I think if you give him a choice to choose which one, he’d choose the Champions League,» Salah told CNN’s Becky Anderson in a private interview at the club’s Melwood training ground.
«That’s my view. I’m not talking about him, but my opinion. It is the biggest competition in soccer, so everybody wants to win it.
«Every single coach, every player wants to win it, fantasies of winning it. So needless to say the Premier League also is something big, but still the Champions League is the biggest competition»
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While free about Liverpool’s Champions League victory, Guardiola publicly questioned why City’s domestic treble failed to inspire more adulation.
And while City celebrated a second consecutive Premier League title, Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham in June’s Champions League final took center stage.
«Frankly, it was amazing,» Salah said of his team’s Champions League success. «it is a fantasy for everyone, the town, the players, to acquire a Champions League is something really great and something very big.
«So everyone was having that particular moment. I was really feeling like a child whose fantasy comes true»
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Premier League rivalry
City and Liverpool looks set to restart hostilities in this year’s Premier League title race using Guardiola’s guys aiming for a third successive domestic crown.
Not since 1990, two years before the arrival of the Premier League, has Liverpool been crowned as champion of England’s best division.
And its activity does not seem like getting easier any time soon.
Founded by just a single point last term, City has spent large in the transport market with all the #62.8 million ($76 million) signing of midfielder Rodri by Atletico Madrid, as well as splashing out #60 million ($72.4 million) on Portuguese guardian Joao Cancelo.
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The two teams won their opening games of the new season with Liverpool thrashing Norwich 4-1 along with City crushing West Ham 5-0 in east London.
But while City sits at home on Wednesday night preparing for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Tottenham, Liverpool is currently in Istanbul for its European Super Cup final.
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The sport, which will be held yearly between the winners of the Champions League and also Europa League, pits Liverpool against English rival Chelsea.
«I love these matches,» Salah said ahead of this tie in Turkey.
«Big games and a last match… they would like to acquire with a new coach and also you want to acquire it,» added Salah, referring to Chelsea’s new director Frank Lampard.
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