Pep Guardiola says the pain of last year’s Champions League exit remained in his head for weeks afterwards.
Pep Guardiola said: “Of course, it remained in my head for weeks and it was painful, I cannot deny,”
City have repeatedly been edged out in the knockout phase of the competition under Guardiola, but the manager says last season’s defeat has no bearing on this game, with City conceding just one goal in the eight games they have already played in the competition.
Pep Guardiola said: “Everyone in this club – not just in this club, all the clubs in this competition – want to go through but you know one thing is what we won, you have to show it on the grass and the opponents have to be beaten, like we’ve done this season. I want to be honest. I’ve prepared for this like I prepared for Everton in the FA Cup, all the Premier League games, over three, four months. It takes a bit longer as the players don’t know them as much, but we try to win the game, not how many goals we score or concede. As much as we want to win, they do too, it’s no more complicated. It looks nicer or special as a competition but it’s the same as the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and we approach it in the same way.”
Manchester City were strong favourites to beat Lyon in the quarter-final, after disposing of Real Madrid to reach the finals tournament, staged in Lisbon in August. But the manager said that the hurt stayed with him for some time following the shock loss at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
