Real Madrid destroyed Manchester City in the Champions League, but Pep Guardiola expects his team to deliver a stronger second leg performance.
Manchester City have a few days left to enjoy being able to call themselves a Champions League club before it all ends. Well, this is unless they can recover a three-goal deficit at the Etihad Stadium.
The team’s trip to the Benrnabeu was a disaster, with Real Madrid quickly running away with the win once Federico Valverde scored his opening goal.
Despite this, Pep Guardiola claimed Man City played ‘quite a good game’ and he has once again looked to change the narrative around his side’s performance.
Pep Guardiola expects Man City to be better in the second leg
Although Man City have been slammed by the media, Guardiola reckons his team ‘played exceptionally’ in the early stages of their clash against Real Madrid.
However, Valverde’s quality made the difference for the hosts, while the City boss believes they received some assistance from the referee.
Regardless of this, Guardiola still anticipiates that his team will ‘do better’ when the teams meet again next Tuesday.
He said in his press conference: “I have an opinion about Madrid and there will be changes. We could do better.
“In the first half before the goal, we played exceptionally – we were a threat. Then the goals come and the quality of Valverde it was a completely different game.
“We conceded a penalty which I am sorry it was not. We had a clear chance for Nico [O’Reilly] but [Thibaut] Courtois made an incredible save.”
Man City have to be solid across 90 minutes
There is no point celebrating playing well for less than a quarter of a game. Guardiola has to accept his team were poor, otherwise there will be no improvement in the second leg.
The manager has mentioned Real Madrid’s penalty, but this is largely irrelevant considering Vinicius Jr failed to score it.
Once the West Ham game is done and dusted, Guardiola needs to come up with a plan to get Man City playing well throughout the whole match.
It is all well and good making a strong start, but that has to be sustainable, regardless of the opposing team’s quality.
