Guardiola happy to have Jesus back for Man City

Pep Guardiola was delighted to see Gabriel Jesus make a goalscoring return in Manchester City’s win over Olympiacos.

Jesus came off the bench for his first appearance since September, scoring in the 3-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.

The Brazil forward has been directly involved in nine goals (six goals and three assists) in his past seven appearances in the Champions League.

Guardiola, whose side host champions Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday, was happy to have the 23-year-old back.

“It was important of course. The fact that Gabriel is back is so important for us and good news, especially for the striker to score a goal, a brilliant goal that he scored,” the City manager told a news conference.

“There were good things, I’m delighted with most parts of the game and happy that Gabriel is back.”

Happy to be back here doing what i love. Great performance tonight. Come on, City!#alômãe#gratidão#doPeri pic.twitter.com/BjPqQu4243

— Gabriel Jesus (@gabrieljesus9) November 3, 2020

While City top Group C with nine points from three games, they are 10th in the Premier League ahead of a blockbuster clash with Liverpool.

But with City now unbeaten in eight games in all competitions, Guardiola said he was pleased with where his team were at.

“It is what it is. It’s well. I’m delighted to face [Liverpool] with the situation that we have. We struggled in the beginning, the people know it,” he said.

“But we move forward, we dropped some points, especially with West Ham we didn’t expect it. The rest maybe we deserved it. But it’s still just six or seven games in the Premier League. We have a lot of games to play.

“We have one game left [before international break] so now is time to enjoy tonight. I want to think about the game today, tonight, nine points and tomorrow is recovery. And in the layover we are going to prepare the training sessions for two days before Liverpool.”