Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that Arsenal are the best team in Europe, with the Real Madrid media also praising Mikel Arteta’s side after they progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Arsenal beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.

The result means that Arteta’s side have progressed to the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier club competition 3-1 on aggregate,

Arsenal will face Portuguese giants Sporting CP in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The Gunners, though, will turn their immediate attention to the Carabao Cup final on Sunday against Manchester City.

Like Arsenal, Man City, too, were in action in the Champions League on Tuesday, but, unlike the Gunners, the Cityzens failed to advance to the quarter-finals.

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Man City lost 2-1 to Real Madrid in the second leg of their last-16 tie to get knocked out 5-1 on aggregate.

After the match, Man City manager Guardiola looked ahead to the Carabao Cup final and paid Arsenal the ultimate compliment, as the former Barcelona boss described them as the best team in England and in Europe.

Metrohas quoted Guardiola as saying about Arsenal: “We will challenge against the best team in England, so far, the best team in Europe, look at the results in the group stage, they have been the first, they’ve maybe lost three or four games this season.

“It’s the best, challenge them how we are, compete with them, we’ll have to see, after one or two weeks we play them in the Premier League and see. Football is that.

“Sometimes they are better so it’s a good mirror to see what we have to do beat them. It’s just a game, we’ll prepare, try to compete and see who we are.

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“In the end the results have not been good, except against Newcastle [in the FA Cup], but I’ve had the feeling we are an extraordinary team, we have many, many good things that I love to watch but we are still not complete, we are not aware in certain moments and departments that we have to be more clinical and still we are not.

“My feeling is that it is a question of time, that happened when I arrived here in my first season, it needs a bit of time.”

It is not just Guardiola who has been hugely impressed with Arsenal, with Spanish publication Marca, too, effusive in its praise of the North London club, describing the Gunners as ‘most reliable’.

Marca, which is Real Madrid-leaning and has close ties with the Spanish publication, has noted: ‘Arteta?‘s team?isn’t the most dazzling, but it is perhaps the most reliable.’

Arsenal have never won the Champions League, but maybe, just maybe, this could be their season.

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