The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA | Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola regretted after a scorching defeat by Olympique Lyon, the English side’s fourth straight UEFA Champions League elimination on Saturday.
Since the Spanish coach took charge of City, the Manchester team has failed to reach the semifinals of Europe’s most important competition.
“Things are as they are, and one day we will overcome this quarterfinal gap,” said the coach, who is considered by many to be the most revolutionary in football in recent times.
“Apart from the first 20 or 25 minutes when we struggled to find spaces to attack fluidly, once the players felt free, in the last 15 or 20 minutes of the first half they were fine,” tried to explain Guardiola.
“In the second half we did well, we were there, and I had the feeling that we were better, but we have to be perfect in this one-game competition, but we weren’t,” he lamented.
Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was very dissatisfied with this English taboo of not reaching the semifinals of the continent’s biggest competition.
“New season, same story. Every season we come with a chance to win, but we don’t win. We are a fantastic team, but one that makes a lot of mistakes,” fired City’s star player.
According to him, the “first half of the game was not good”, with the team “playing at a slow pace”.
“In the second half, we performed very well. It is a pity that we leave this way. We have to learn, it is difficult, we create chances in the second half to win. Now it’s time to go home, it’s been a long season,” de Bruyne resigned.
As City return to Manchester, Olympique Lyon return to the field next Wednesday against the mighty Bayer Munich, in a new confrontation between a European giant against one of the competition’s underdogs.
****
XINHUA
