Here’s What Liverpool Boss Jurgen Klopp Has Said About Manchester City’s 2-Year Champions League Ban

Liverpool FC boss Jurgen Klopp has said he feels for Manchester City after UEFA banned Pep Guardiola’s side from Champions League for two seasons. City, however, have 10 days to make an appeal against the ban and take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“It was a shock when I heard it. In this moment I imagine it's very hard for them. I have no idea how these things work - what I can say is Manchester City under Pep Guardiola play sensational football. I've always admired what they do. To be honest I feel for Pep and the players because, wow, they did, for sure, nothing wrong. They just played football and sensational football. Pep helped the league to improve football,” Klopp showed his support for Guardiola and Man City.

Man City, who are banned from the two Champions League seasons and fined $32 million, were found to have deceived European football’s governing body and broken financial fair play rules.

Guardiola's side is set to face Real Madrid in the Round of 16 of the ongoing Champions League season and Real manager Zinedine Zidane is certain that Man City’s motivation will be "immense" when the sides meet Thursday.

“It's a rival who are going to be very, very difficult. For what has happened, their motivation will be immense. I'm not going to go into what happened, what is going to happen. It's a team, anyway, who will be a difficult opponent, knowing also how they have been doing in the Premier League. So they will have extra motivation,” Zidane said in a recent interview.

Man City, who have won England’s premier domestic league title as many as six times, have never won the Champions League. They have only reached as far as the quarter-finals in their three seasons under Guardiola, who has said his time in Manchester will be considered a failure if he fails to win the European premier tournament.

Man City have won the Premier League the last two seasons but the reigning champions are not close to retaining the title this time around. In the current 2019-20 season, Man City are trailing leaders Liverpool by 25 points in the table.