Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says Chelsea are one of the toughest sides he has faced during his managerial career.
The Citizens retained the Carabao Cup trophy with a penalty shoot-out win over the Blues at Wembley on Sunday, and Guardiola says it was an incredibly close match.
“It was a tight game and we knew it would be like that because it is a final; I was very impressed with Chelsea, the way they defended and they were very organised,” he said.
“They are one of the toughest sides that I have faced during my career, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante knew what they had to do with the way they pressed us and their lateral movement.
“I think it was incredible, it is not easy to find them and I think for 60/65 minutes [they did] very well, for the last 15/20 minutes we suffered because of the injury situations.”
City were 6-0 winners against Chelsea in the Premier League at the start of the month, and Guardiola says he knew it’d be a completely different game this time around.
“We now have two titles in our basket with this trophy and the Community Shield, and we knew they would come out with pride after the game a few weeks ago,” he added.
“It is a final and you know it is always going to be difficult, it was a very similar game to the one at Stamford Bridge where we lost.
“Today we are happy, [Raheem] Sterling has a lot of self-confidence and he wanted to score the last goal, I appreciated the guys who have the courage to take a penalty.”