Guardiola cools Bayern´s Euro hopes

Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola has cooled talk of the club making history by retaining the UEFA Champions League title this season.

Guardiola will take charge of his first Champions League match as Bayern manager against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday, four months after the Bundesliga champions won the competition at Wembley back in May.

Ahead of CSKA’s visit to the Allianz Arena, Guardiola looked to calm expectations that Bayern could become the first side to successfully defend the Champions League.

When asked whether Bayern could win successive European titles, Guardiola responded: “It’s still too early to say that.

“We want to first make it out of the group and qualify for the knockout stages. Now is too early (to predict).”

Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice as Barcelona manager and the European Cup once as a player with the Spanish giants, secured his first trophy as Bayern boss in the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea in August.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer feels that success will stand his team-mates in good stead for their clash with the Russian champions.

“It was a good start to the international competitions,” he said.

“It’s very good for us to go into the Champions League group stage with the experienced gained from that match.”

Guardiola could welcome back Bastian Schweinsteiger for the Group D clash after he recovered from an ankle injury.

However, Javi Martinez, Thiago, Mario Gotze and Holger Badstuber are all ruled out.