Gerard Pique has shared who he thinks is better out of Manchester City’s current team and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona from 2011.
The former defender made 616 appearances for Barcelona between 2008 and 2023, 183 of which came under Guardiola when he was in charge of the Spanish club.
Having seen his former manager win the Treble with the Citizens last season, the World Cup winner has now shared his thoughts on Guardiola’s current side and how they would fare against the Barcelona side that beat Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final.
Pique picks between Guardiola’s City and Guardiola’s Barcelona
In a recent episode of Football Daily, Pique had this to say when asked who would win in a hypothetical match between the current City team and Guardiola’s Barcelona side from the 2010/11 season.
He said: “It’s a tough one. It’s very difficult.
“I think that, not because it was our team, but the Barcelona 2010-2011 final versus Manchester United that we won 3-1 at Wembley, I think this is one of the best games and being in a final, which always is difficult to play in a final, it’s been one of the best games I’ve seen play of any team in the world in the history.
“And it was recognised by Sir Alex Ferguson, by Rio Ferdinand, by a lot of the players and the managers of the other team in this case.
“That year we really played well, like very well.
“We didn’t win the Treble because we lost the final of the Cup in the extra time against Madrid and there was an offside goal of Pedro that didn’t count for one millimetre. But we played really well.
“We beat in the semi-finals Real Madrid. At that time there was a lot of tension between both clubs. And that year I think that we played really, really well.
“I don’t know, it’s a tough comparison to compare now with the City team. I think we should win.”
2023 City vs 2011 Barcelona
Looking back over Barcelona’s 2010/11 La Liga campaign, they won 30 of their 38 games, drawing six and losing two, scoring 95 goals and conceding 21.
Then with City’s 22/23 Premier League season, they won 28, drew five and lost five of their 38 games, finding the back of the net 94 times and conceding 33.
With the Champions League, Barcelona won nine of their 13 games, drawing three and losing once, scoring 31 goals and letting nine in.
Across their 13 Champions League games last season, the Citizens won eight and drew five, scoring 32 and conceding five.
Taking all of that into account, it’s safe to say that these two sides are some of the most impressive that European football has seen.
However, in terms of Pique claiming that his old Barcelona side would be Guardiola’s current City team, we feel that there is unsurprisingly and understandably some bias in this answer seeing as he played a big role in Barcelona’s success from that season and beyond.
