Miron Muslic has described Pep Guardiola as 'a giant in our sport' ahead of his Plymouth Argyle side taking on the Spaniard's star-studded Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday.

Muslic led the Pilgrims to a shock 1-0 victory over Premier League leaders Liverpool in a fourth round tie at Home Park earlier this month and now he will get the chance to go up against Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium. Guardiola has been one of world football's most successful managers ever, first at Barcelona, then Bayern Munich and since 2016 with City.

Argyle's head coach said: "I think he's a giant in our sport, one of the most successful coaches in sports history, one of the most successful coaches in football history. He has been a trend setter for the last 20 years, raising the bar to the highest possible level, and finding the marginal gains to still improve.

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"It will be the biggest honour in my career as a coach to shake his hand and to tell him exactly this, that he's a giant of our sport and a huge role model for every single coach in this world."

Muslic made his name as a coach at Belgian Pro League club Cercle Brugge, leading them into the Europa League for this season, before taking charge of Argyle last month. The Pilgrims were bottom of the Championship at the time but have since moved up to 22nd position after winning two and drawing four of their nine league games under Muslic as they fight against relegation.

"The last six games we have collected nine points," said Muslic. "Not one team in our region of the table collected this points. We are just way more competitive than we have been at the start of January, we are way more stable.

"We have reduced the amount of conceding goals, we are still very dangerous offensively. Most important, we are competitive in every single game, even though we didn't play our best game against Cardiff (a 1-1 draw at Home Park last Saturday) we just felt the schedule was heavy for us and we were tired.

"We were in a moment where we needed a little break and Cardiff was fresh, but still we managed to bounce back and to grab a point and I think we are on a very good way. It's now up to us to maintain this and gradually take steps forward.

"I think we will need an average of 1.2, 1.3 points per game to achieve the big, big goal. Still there are a lot of things we can improve but we are improving almost week by week."

Meanwhile, Argyle's away Championship game against Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, March 29, will now kick-off at 12.30pm instead of 3pm and be broadcast live on Sky Sports Football.

Also, the Pilgrims' season-ending fixture against Leeds United at Home Park has been confirmed for a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday, May 3. All of the final round of Championship matches will be played at the same time.

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