Chelsea manager Antonio Conte “may be the best”, says Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola who has “learned a lot” from teams managed by the Italian.
Guardiola and Conte are both in their debut season in English football and face each other again on Wednesday.
The latter has fared better, with his Chelsea side leading the Premier League, 11 points ahead of fourth-placed City.
“My opinion about my colleague Conte is that he’s superb,” said the Catalan.
“He was able to make Italy play beautiful football – Juventus too – in a culture where it’s so defensive.
“He’s an excellent manager, I learn a lot when I see his teams – Juventus, Italy and now. I like to do that because you see what they want to do. Their teams control a lot of aspects.
“Maybe he’s the best.”
Guardiola took over at Manchester City last summer having won three successive Bundesliga titles and two German Cups with Bayern Munich between 2013 and 2016.
Before that he led Barcelona to three straight La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and the Champions League twice.
However, the 46 year old says he was always realistic about what he could achieve with City during this campaign.
“In my case I had to win the treble and change English football,” he said.
“Expectations were quite high, that’s why I’m going to fall short definitely. I cannot have success this season.
“In Barcelona we won the three titles in a row, we played all the competitions, we played the Champions League every three days and we were able to play almost immediately. Sometimes you need more time.”
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