A far from vintage performance at the Etihad saw Manchester City draw 1-1 with Shakhtar Donetsk and top Group C.
But while admitting it was not his side’s best performance, Guardiola was keen to focus on the positives of reaching the business end in Europe with a game to spare.
And the key positive in his eyes was the possibility of throwing all his energy into the Premier League chase.
“Now we have one competition already done, and now our focus will be the Premier League until we arrive back in the cups,” he said.
“The target was to qualify and we have done it.”
Guardiola insisted Shakhtar was never going to be an easy game.
“They always have quality players. In general, we created chances but the draw was enough in the end,” he said.
“The game I saw good things and things we have to improve but we are in the next stage and that is the most important thing.”
Victory for Atalanta against Dinamo Zagreb means City needed only a point to top their group with the Croatian side still to play in a fortnight.
And the City boss was keen to celebrate the achievement of seven straight years of knockout football in Europe.
“It is a lot to reach it seven years in a row – it means you have to qualify seven times so now let’s see what condition we arrive there,” he said.
City’s goalscorer Ilkay Gundogan insisted it was a case of ‘job done’ despite the home side’s performance being less than perfect.
“Unfortunately, we got a draw which we have to accept but we qualify as group winners which is the most important thing,” he said.
“We knew this game would be tough. We let them play and didn’t defend as well as we normally do, so we struggled to create.
“It was not our best performance but this is the Champions League and it is a competition where you have to struggle.”