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Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola acknowledged Real Madrid’s right to qualify for the Champions League semi-finals, after overcoming the difficult hurdle of the Citizens with an exciting scenario.
Real Madrid was able to defeat Manchester City in its home, at the Etihad Stadium, on penalties (4-3), on Wednesday evening, in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, in a match that ended in a draw (1-1) during regular and extra time.
Pep said in his comments after the match: “Real Madrid were better than us in the penalty shootout, so they are in the semi-finals and we are not. I must say thank you to the players from the bottom of my heart because of the way they played. But football is about winning and we did not do enough. But we were exceptional.”
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Guardiola continued: “Sometimes you can win on penalties and sometimes not. But in the match we did not take advantage of the opportunities we had, even though we really defended the win.”
He added: “Everyone showed up at a high level. We said we had to be at our best in order to win. I would have preferred to win but congratulations to Real Madrid, we did everything, so I don’t regret anything at all.”
He concluded: “I always say as a coach, it’s about scoring more goals and conceding as few as possible and we did everything. We played exceptionally well but unfortunately we couldn’t win, so that’s the way it is.”
Real Madrid is scheduled to face its German counterpart, Bayern Munich, in the semi-finals of the Champions League, which won qualification at the expense of Arsenal.
