Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said top scorer Erling Haaland and playmaker Kevin de Bruyne asked to go away the pitch before his side were eliminated within the Champions League quarter-finals by Real Madrid on penalties.
Both would likely have taken spot-kicks had they still been on the pitch, with City ultimately losing 4-3 on penalties after the tie ended 4-4 on aggregate.
Defender Manuel Akanji was the third player to get replaced on account of recent injuries.
“They asked me to leave,” Guardiola said. “They couldn’t continue.”
Haaland was replaced by Julian Alvarez, who scored a penalty late within the 90 minutes, and De Bruyne, who scored City’s first goal, left the sphere in the primary half of overtime.
The Belgian gave strategy to Mateo Kovacic, whose shot was saved by Real goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
The City manager didn’t criticize Kovacic or Bernardo Silva, who called for a penalty but shot poorly straight at Lunin.
“Bernardo is a reliable player,” he said. “He wanted to take it. He decided to shoot this way. So it is”.
City had 67% of possession at the Etihad Stadium, having 33 shots to eight and nine on target to Real Madrid’s three.
But it made no difference as the defense of the trophy that City had so thrillingly won against Inter Milan last June came to an end at the same time as their hopes of a historic double treble.
“Johan Cruyff said there is no such thing as happiness, I agree with him,” Guardiola said.
“Such a defeat hurts. We feel bad, but we did everything. We don’t regret what we did.”
City have little time to recover, with Saturday facing Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Guardiola knows this defeat will hurt, even though Real are the tournament heavyweights and will now have a chance to lift the trophy for a 15th time at Wembley in June.
“We played exceptionally in all aspects, but unfortunately we couldn’t win,” he said.
“You hope to create more and concede less because that helps you win, but we didn’t take the possibilities we had.
“To beat Real Madrid you’ve got to be at your best. We were at our greatest, nevertheless it wasn’t enough.”
Credit : www.bbc.co.uk
