Pep Guardiola admitted he still feels “so bad for the players” more than two months after their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Lyon.
Pep Guardiola said “It was a tough moment. I felt so responsible for this, how the club and players fought to achieve it, and I was not able to drive them. Still right now I feel responsible watching the game, so we have to accept the reality. We were not good enough. We didn’t play bad, we had really good moments and had our chances but made mistakes and in this competition you cannot do it to go through. The reality watching a little bit in the past the expectations always in every club, every team and manager, not just here, has to dream with high expectations but the reality is we have not performed to the level we have to to get through in this competition – and that is the reality. We have to accept it with humility, accept all the bad situations that we have and when we accept this, it is the best way to improve and go through and accept a new challenge to this season, start from zero again and try it again knowing we have to improve. Everyone knows this competition is so demanding and I feel so bad for the players but this is a new opportunity and we start again from zero.”
Manchester City headed to Lisbon for the final three rounds of the competition on a high after beating the team dubbed the “kings of the competition” by their manager, dumping Real Madrid out to make the last eight. However, they were brought crashing down to earth as the French side stunned them 3-1 on the night to book a semi-final showdown with eventual champions Bayern Munich. Guardiola came under severe criticism for the performance that saw an experimental defence struggle to cope and with defensive mistakes exacerbated by the failure of the forwards to take a number of excellent opportunities. City start a new European campaign when they take on Porto on Wednesday in their first group game and the hope for the Blues boss is that his team accept the reality of why everything fell apart as they go again.
