Pep Guardiola got his first taste of victory as Manchester City’s manager on Thursday after beating Borussia Dortmund on penalties in a friendly, but expressed concern about the looming English Premier League season.

“Football today is tough,” said Guardiola, whose side beat their German opposition.

“Today you don’t have time to rest. I don’t know if we are going to kill our players but the schedule is the schedule. We start in two weeks. But I saw what I wanted to see [tonight] — we are aggressive and we want the ball.”City won — and finally got the workout Guardiola had craved — thanks to a 6-5 penalty shootout win over Dortmund, after the game ended one apiece.

Guardiola admitted City were still a work in progress with just two pre-season games completed so far, and two to come before the EPL action kicks off.