Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City shot themselves in the foot once more in the Champions League after crashing out in the quarter-finals for the third straight season with a shock 3-1 defeat to Lyon in Lisbon.
A familiar cocktail
of defensive errors, missed chances and VAR controversy did for Guardiola’s
side with the Catalan coach also under fire for another surprise team selection
in the knockout stages.
Guardiola is yet to
get beyond the last eight in his four years in charge of City as the English
side’s wait to be crowned champions of Europe continues despite the billions
invested by the club’s Abu Dhabi owners.
“One day we’ll
break this gap to the quarter-finals,” said Guardiola.
“You have to be
perfect in these competitions in one game and we weren’t.”
City looked
disjointed as Guardiola started with an unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation and trailed
at half-time to Maxwel Cornet’s strike.
Their pressure in
the second half finally told when Kevin De Bruyne levelled 21 minutes from
time.
However, Moussa
Dembele’s strike to restore the French side’s lead was allowed to stand despite
a VAR check for a trip on Aymeric Laporte.
Raheem Sterling
then incredibly fired over with the goal gaping to bring City back on level
terms and less than 60 seconds later an error from goalkeeper Ederson allowed
Dembele to tap home and seal Lyon a semi-final meeting with Guardiola’s old
club Bayern Munich.
“This competition
is that situation,” Guardiola added of Sterling’s miss.
“You have to
equalise and go to extra-time and after we concede the third goal. We create
more chances, so we did everything but unfortunately we are out again.”
Neither Guardiola
nor De Bruyne wished to dwell on the VAR call for Lyon’s second after the
dramatic role it played in denying City a stoppage time winner in last season’s
quarter-final against Tottenham.
“I’ve no idea, I’ve
not seen it back so whatever they decide, they decide. I’m not going to blame that,
I think we should have done better,” De Bruyne told BT Sport.
“Different year,
same stuff. We need to learn, it’s not good enough.”