Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has reacted to the team’s Champions League knockout play-off phase deadlock against Real Madrid, MySportDab reports.
Manchester City stumbled to a 3-1 away defeat to Real Madrid in the second leg to crash out of the competition on a 6-3 aggregate loss.
Kylian Mbappe was a nightmare for the Cityzens, scoring his first Champions League hat-trick for Real Madrid to secure a deserved victory for the Galacticos.
Meanwhile, for City, the loss capped an inconsistent and overly underwhelming performances both at the domestic and European scene this season.
Similar to their struggles in the Premier League, Manchester City escaped elimination in the league phase of the Champions by a needle-inch.
It took a win in the final round of matches to seal victory but it was evident they weren’t in for a rollercoaster run in the competition.
Drawn against Real Madrid in the knockout playoffs, they had a chance to knock off the doubts but stumbled right from the first leg, losing 3-2 at home.
Amidst the team’s overall stuttering run, Pep Guardiola had been largely pessimistic of the team’s chances.
Speaking for the second leg at the Bernabeu, he said the team has a 1% chance of overturning the 3-2 first-leg loss to Los Blancos and it turned out as he predicted.
After they crashed out of the competition following the capitulation at Santiago Bernabeu, Pep gave credits to Real Madrid, stating they win the tie deservedly as the better side.
“Tonight the best team won, that’s simple. Real Madrid were the best team and they won, it’s deserved,” he said as Fabrizio Romano quotes.
Away from the UCL deadlock, City will face another difficult tie at the weekend, hosting Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
