‘It Is Normal’ – Pep Guardiola Reacts To Man City’s UCL Loss To Real Madrid

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has reacted to his side’s defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night.
Naija News reports Man City was yesterday denied the chance to meet their title rivals, Liverpool, in the UEFA Champions League final after Carlo Ancelotti’s men defeated them in extra time.

The English Premier League club led 1-0 on the night at the Santiago Bernabeu and 5-3 on aggregate heading into the 90th minute before the Los Blancos make a historic come back with two goals in 88 seconds from substitute Rodrygo.

The development sent the game to an extra time play.

Hopeful City, however, got ripped out of the UCL semi-final second leg as Karim Benzema slotted home the winner from the penalty spot to send the 13-time winners into the final.

Real Madrid will now be facing Liverpool in the Champions League final in Paris come May 28.

Speaking moments after the Wednesday night match, Guardiola told BT Sport that his side didn’t do well in the end, but admitted that it is normal.

He said: “We didn’t play our best, but it is normal, in a semi-final, the players feel the pressure and wanting to do it.”

“Football is unpredictable, it is a game like this. We have to accept it,” the City boss noted.

Identifying errors by his squad, Guardiola the tactician said: “After we scored the goal we were better. We found out tempo and our game and the players were comfortable.

“It is not like in the last 10 minutes they attack and attack and you suffer. It didn’t happen. They put a lot of players in the box, with (Eder) Militao, Rodrygo, Vinicius (Junior), Benzema and they put in crosses and scored two goals,” he admitted.

Naija News understands that City will need to get another painful European exit out of their system quickly if they are to avoid ending the season without a trophy for the first time in five years.

City currently sits at the top of the Premier League with a point ahead of Liverpool, having four games remaining to end the season.

“Now we need to process that and come back with our people at home and the last four games we have,” said Guardiola, whose side host Newcastle on Sunday.