Pep Guardiola did not make any mistakes. He made every effort to win. But his team lost against Madrid. Of course, the Manchester City coach has no regrets. City exited the Champions League quarterfinals last night after losing a tiebreaker to Real Madrid. Guardiola also stood by Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, who failed to score in the tiebreaker.
The two teams were tied 1-1 until the extra time of the match at the Etihad. Real reached the semi-finals with a 4-3 win in the tiebreaker. Earlier, the first leg was a 3-3 draw. Guardiola’s City dominated the return leg to extra time but could not pull out the win. City had possession of the ball 68 percent of the time. With 33 shots, they had nine shots on target. Where only 8 shots were taken by Real, only 3 shots were kept on target.
After the loss, last time champion City coach Guardiola said, “We have no regrets about what we did. Always tried to create more opportunities. We believe that we can win like this, and we have tried everything. We played well in every category, but unfortunately, we didn’t win.
Real goalkeeper Andriy Lunin stopped the shots of Silva and Kovacic in the tiebreaker. City supporters may question the form of Portuguese midfielder Silva Shot in particular. Silva takes an easy shot to the left of Lunin. The goalkeeper from Ukraine easily blocked the ball. However, Guardiola is not willing to blame any of them for the loss. Bernardo wanted to take a shot (in the tiebreaker). He is a reliable player and decides to take the shot that way. What a great match he played! But it can happen.
Real’s players have gone down and handled the defense. Madrid’s team is usually seen playing as aggressively as it is, but that was not the case in the return leg. Guardiola has no complaints about this strategy of Real: “I don’t judge these things.” It’s not my job. It’s football. That’s how it’s played in this competition.’ But Guardiola may have some regrets about wasting opportunities for City’s players. Erling Haaland’s head hit Real’s crossbar in the first half. Kevin De Bruyne blasts from inside the box. “Sometimes you win on penalties, sometimes you lose,” Guardiola said. But we could not use the opportunity in the match.
Thanking the players of the team, Guardiola said, “The way they played, I have to thank the players from the bottom of my heart. But winning is the last thing in football. We played well, but it was not enough to win.
City’s dream of winning the ‘treble’ for the second time in a row after exiting the Champions League was dashed. Guardiola’s team is 2 points ahead of second-placed Arsenal in the English Premier League with six matches in hand. On Saturday, City will play Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinals.
