Pep Guardiola makes Arsenal verdict very clear as Champions League contenders named

Pep Guardiola has identified four teams that he believes stand a chance of clinching the Champions League title after Manchester City's exit at the hands of Real Madrid. City succumbed to a 6-3 aggregate defeat against Los Blancos, with Kylian Mbappe scoring a hat-trick in Madrid's 3-1 victory during the second leg of their play-off tie.

As the reigning champions, having secured the trophy for the 15th time last season, Carlo Ancelotti's squad is considered by Guardiola to be the frontrunners for this year's crown. Despite Arsenal finishing third in the league phase, they did not make Guardiola's list of potential winners.

"Of course Madrid are a contender, definitely," Guardiola remarked following City's elimination. "But there are other good teams around. It will be an interesting Champions League season. Madrid are always favourites for this trophy. There are other teams who are having a very good season but Madrid are always favourites.

"But there are other teams that are playing very well. Liverpool are having a really good season up until now, Barcelona are amazing, Paris Saint-Germain, with my friend Luis [Enrique] in charge, are on the march. But obviously, Madrid are favourites."

This marks the third occasion in four years that City have been ousted from a knockout round by Madrid, and Guardiola conceded that this time, the better team triumphed. "The best team won. They deserved it," he acknowledged.

"This season we haven't been so good – I felt that, in the previous seasons, we were better than Madrid, but this time not so. In this competition, quality always counts. This season Madrid are capable of long [spells of] possession; they were dynamic, they're fast when they run and they pressed well."

Fully embracing the situation, he stated: "What you have to do is accept it and move on. Nothing is eternal. It was hard to bring the 3-2 [first leg defeat] here but now we have to learn from this and accept that there are another, I don't know... 30 or 40 games to come [this season].

"We have to try to win the FA Cup, we have to try to finish in the top four in the league and we have to try to be back again in this competition next season. I have very little to reproach my squad for in terms of how they've played in the Champions League over the years."

Reflecting on past clashes with Madrid and the current outcome, he said: "When we were eliminated by Madrid in the past, I felt we were very close. We reached semi-finals and finals. Tonight, when a team is better sportingly than you, you have to accept it and congratulate them."

As for Arsenal, they will face either PSV or Feyenoord, following the Dutch teams' impressive victories over Juventus and AC Milan, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Mirror