Guardiola: Manchester City did not fail in the Champions League

Pep Guardiola claims Manchester City did not fail in the Champions League despite their quarter-final exit.

City were beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Liverpool to crash out at the last-eight stage, having gone one phase further than in their first campaign under Guardiola.

But the Premier League leaders were hard done by, according to their manager, after seeing goals ruled out in both legs, with Guardiola sent to the stands for remonstrating with the referee when Leroy Sane had a goal ruled out at the Etihad Stadium.

“We scored two legal goals in two games and then, in Juventus v Real Madrid, you are talking penalty or no penalty,” he said. “In that competition, it counts a lot.

“We saw it in every round, the influence of the little details is so, so big. The quality of the teams is so, so big. We played a better competition this season in the Champions League and we’ll try to come back next season stronger to do well.

“But I don’t have the feeling that we missed out on what we wanted to do or that we failed. We did well.”

#PEP: The player’s showed me their courage and reacted to the Anfield defeat. The first half was outstanding but the little details are so so big because the quality of the opponents are so so big. We’ll try and come back next season and do really well.

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 13, 2018

Looking ahead to Saturday’s top-flight game against Tottenham, Guardiola insists there is nothing wrong with his side’s performances following a run of three consecutive losses.

“If you judge results, okay: judge results,” he said. “But even after losing at Anfield, how we played against [Manchester] United was top. After losing to United, how we played against Liverpool was top.

“During the season, it has been like this. These are magnificent players. We are sad we went out of the Champions League, but it’s hard to take the way it happened.”