Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on Real Madrid - 'What a hell of a way to lose'

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was sanguine about their exit to Real Madrid on penalties in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. City registered 57 shots over the two matches, but could not outscore their oppenents in the 22 shots that Los Blancos had.

“I would have preferred to win, of course. First of all, I would like to congratulate Real Madrid for qualifying for the semi-finals. Madrid defended so deep, with a lot of solidarity. We gave everything, I don’t regret anything. We have done everything, both defensively and offensively. Of course we could of created more, but we only suffered on two or three counters, we did all we could. It is what it is,” Guardiola explained.

Manchester City pushed Real Madrid back to the edge of their box for much of the game, and Carlo Ancelotti’s side struggled to escape City’s press for much of the game.

“I do not judge. Carlo’s decisions or whatever, I don’t judge,” Guardiola said when he was asked about the defensive approach of Real Madrid.

Rodrygo Goes’ late goal proved sufficient to take Real Madrid to penalties, where Andriy Lunin came up big for Los Blancos.

“It’s football. In this competition, that’s the way football happens. In other sports, for statistics we would have won but in football it’s the marvellous thing about football is this is what happens. The way that we played, the amount of shots that we had, being in there and the transitions we had.”

The overwhelming feeling that Guardiola conveyed during his press conference was one of pride in his team.

“I have to say thank you to these players from deep in my heart because the way they played. But football is about winning and we didn’t do enough yet we were exceptional.”

It was put to him that the only thing