Man City Boss Guardiola Refusing to Settle for Napoli Draw as UCL Last-16 Place Beckons

Pep Guardiola has questioned why Manchester City would only play for a draw against Napoli as they look to cement their place in the last-16 of the Champions League.

The Citizens boss queried why journalists believed he should go against his footballing mantra and park the bus against the current Serie A leaders with Goal carrying his comments for publication.

City have won their opening three matches in UEFA's leading club tournament and need only one more point from the remaining 12 to secure the runners-up place in group F, and pipped Maurizio Sarri's side to a slender 2-1 victory in the reverse game at the Etihad stadium two weeks ago.

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Napoli currently occupy top spot in their domestic league having taken 31 points from a possible 33, but only lie third in their UCL standings with only three points from nine.

Despite that, Sarri's charges will be a tough team for Guardiola's side to overcome - reasoning behind reporter's questions about escaping from Naples with a share of the spoils - but the Spaniard remarked that he would not go against his philosophy of attacking football to do so.

Guardiola said: "Why should we play for a draw when you can play for a win? We will certainly take the pitch to win the game and then we will see what happens during the game.

"We have plenty of respect for Napoli, for the way they play, but this is a match; football is a game and fear cannot exist.

"We will just try to play a good game. We are a young club in Europe, we don't have the experience of other top clubs. So this is another test for us, let's see if we are continuing to grow."

Any one of three teams in group F - Feyenoord aside - can still quality for the next stage of the competition, and Guardiola added that City, Napoli and Shakhtar Donetsk would all have hopes of making it to the last-16.

He added: "Manchester City, Napoli and Shakhtar are very similar, they are all very strong teams.

"I don't want to show a lack of respect to Feyenoord because Dutch football gave us so much but I think the other three teams are more or less at the same level.

"I repeat that I love watching Napoli play. I think in this sport it is important when you can transfer emotions to the fans and Napoli are always trying to do that."