Even after high expectations from the fans and football pundits, Premier League side Manchester City faced a tragic defeat against French Ligue 1 club Lyon. And now, City manager Pep Guardiola explained his tactical tweaks to cover up the flaws of the team. He also explained the costly miss of Raheem Sterling during the last night’s clash.
Manchester City faced Lyon last night at Lisbon in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals of this season. Maxwel Cornet scored the first goal for Lyon which Kevin De Bruyne canceled in the second half. Shortly after, Moussa Dembele scored two brilliant goals to finally seal the victory of Olympique Lyonnais.
Pep Guardiola explains the tactical flaws after Manchester City faced a shocking UCL loss against Lyon
While talking about last night’s match, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola told BT Sport, “No, what we have done is try to cover our weak points in comparing with the strong points, like they make incredible [moves] in the channels with the two-v-two.” He said, “[After the] first 15-20 minutes of the first half, it was magnificent, we unblocked our respect a little bit, or we struggled to find our spaces to attack and in the same shape we played well in the final 10-15 minutes.
The City manager said, “We created chances, scored a magnificent goal, but unfortunately missed another one.” He said, “In this situation, you have to equalize and go to extra-time in the last minutes, and after, we concede the third goal,” and then added, “In this competition, you have to be perfect. We created more chances, more shooting, but unfortunately, we are out again.”
Manchester City vs. Olympique Lyonnais | Full Highlights
Pep Guardiola said, “One day we will break this gap to the semis. In the first 20, 25 minutes, we struggled to find spaces to attack,” and then added, “The second half was okay – we were there. I had a feeling we were better. You have to be perfect in this competition.”
Manchester City manager said, “I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about the circumstances sometimes, you know I don’t wanna talk, it looks like I am complaining or finding excuses, we are out.” He then added, “I had the feeling we were incredible already. We did a lot of good things, but we made a lot of mistakes in the boxes in the key moments.”