Guardiola ready to make Bundesliga history

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola says his side are within touching distance of winning a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title after their 3-1 win over Stuttgart on Saturday. 

The result stretched Bayern’s lead over nearest rivals Borussia Dortmund to eight points, with Thomas Tuchel’s side due to travel to Schalke on Sunday.

The outgoing coach, who will join Manchester City at the end of the season, was not happy with all aspects of his team’s performance at Mercedes-Benz-Arena, but acknowledged the difficulty of playing in such close proximity to the latter stages of the Champions League.

“We need three more wins and a draw in order to create something that has never been managed by a team in Germany,” said Guardiola, according to the official Bundesliga website. 

“We had many problems, committed too many fouls and conceded too many free-kicks and corners. We made it complicated for ourselves. 

“But we [improved], especially in the second half. We had better attacks, the strikers moved better.

“After the first goal and in the second half we played very well.

“A game like this is always tough in between two Champions League games,” he added, referring to Bayern’s quarter-final tie against Benfica, which they lead 1-0 on aggregate from the first leg in Munich last week, with the return fixture to come in Lisbon on Wednesday.

David Alaba, who scored Bayern’s second on Saturday, said: “Before 1-0 Stuttgart did very well, they were very close and compact, which is why it was not easy for us.

“On Wednesday in Lisbon, I expect a very intense game since we have to give everything.”