After the 0-3 defeat in Madrid, Manchester City is on the brink of elimination, and Pep Guardiola agrees. Nevertheless, the 55-year-old saw a good game from his team—unlike the English press.
The statistics from the game at the Bernabeu were somewhat strange. Manchester City had 60 percent possession, but only an xGoals value of 0.59 – Real’s was an impressive 2.63.
The fact that Los Blancos left large parts of the field to the English side was, of course, also due to the course of the game. After just 41 minutes, Los Blancos were already 3-0 up thanks to a hat-trick from Fede Valverde. The Telegraph wrote that ManCity had been “torn to pieces,” while The Guardian said that the Skyblues had been ‘destroyed’ and Guardiola “exposed as a tactical novice” because of his offensive approach.
Pep Guardiola had surprisingly selected three wingers in the starting lineup with Jeremy Doku, Savinho, and Antoine Semenyo, with Semenyo playing alongside Erling Haaland in attack. But the surprise tactic didn’t work, and ManCity instead ran into a trap. “I wanted them to be aggressive in one-on-one situations on the wings,” Guardiola revealed. “Jeremy was outstanding, but we had a bit more trouble on the right side.”
Bernardo Silva speaks of loss of control
Bernardo Silva expressed the situation somewhat more drastically. The team “let their emotions get the better of them,” said the captain. “We felt comfortable, but after the first goal we completely lost control and stopped controlling the game.”
Guardiola, on the other hand, was less critical of his team’s performance. “I think we played a pretty good game,” said the ManCity coach. “We got into the penalty area a lot, and when you do that, it means you’ve gone through a good process, but we didn’t score.” Guardiola praised the opposition, saying that Real had always been “very dangerous” and had “defended well.”
Thanks to Vinicius Junior’s missed penalty in the second half, ManCity at least won’t have to come back from 0-4 down. That improves Manchester’s chances, but they are “not very good at the moment. But of course we’ll try,” said Guardiola.