Brighton & Hove Albion boss Roberto De Zerbi has admitted that he 'became a coach for Pep Guardiola' and believes that the Manchester City manager is "still number one".
De Zerbi's Seagulls side played out a 1-1 draw with the Premier League champions at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday night, and a point claimed for the Seagulls was enough to guarantee a top-six finish and qualify for next season's Europa League.
Phil Foden opened the scoring for the Citizens in the 25th minute, but Brighton deservedly restored parity courtesy of a stunning 25-yard strike from Julio Enciso seven minutes before half time.
Guardiola raved about De Zerbi prior to kickoff and labelled the Italian as 'one of the most influential managers in the last 20 years'.
Following Brighton's draw with Man City, De Zerbi took the time to return the favour and heaped praise on Guardiola, who played a major part in the Italian's decision to take up management.
"I became a coach for Guardiola because I loved his Barcelona," De Zerbi told Sky Sports after the match.
"I studied him a lot. I don't want to copy no-one but I took [ideas] when I started to be a coach. Pep is number one."
On Brighton's performance in the draw with Man City, De Zerbi added: "It was very tough. We knew to play against Manchester City is always tough. We played very well, we deserved the point and we deserve to play in the Europa League.
"[I was pleased with] the courage. To defend man-to-man, to play the ball in every situation. We didn't lose our style.
"Julio's goal was incredible. He has big, big potential, but I want him to play better and play for the team. If he stays with us I think he can improve."
De Zerbi has admitted that he initially had no end-of-season targets for Brighton when he arrived at the club in September and only started to look at the club's position in the Premier League table in February.
"I didn't think about [European qualification when I first came here]. I wanted to work and to analyse the team and the players, to understand the new country and the new league," said the 43-year-old. "In February, I started to think about the table, the final result and the goal."
Brighton chairman Tony Bloom believes that the club have hired "the perfect man" in De Zerbi and he has expressed his pride for the Seagulls securing Europa League football for the first time in their history.
"The season started really well and then I got the phone call and Graham [Potter] left soon after," said Bloom. "You never know in the early part of the season what may happen when you hire a new coach.
"Fortunately we hired the perfect man, the players have taken to him so magnificently. His motivational skills, tactical skills and getting the best out of our players has been absolutely superb.
"We are getting prepared [for next season] – we have been working hard for the last few weeks on our squad and we will continue to do that over the next two or three months. I am exceptionally proud, we have come a long way."
Brighton will conclude their successful season with a trip to Villa Park to face Europa Conference League hopefuls Aston Villa on Sunday.
