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Pep Guardiola discusses the areas where Man City can improve before the second leg of their Champions League semifinal.
After witnessing his Manchester City team pull out a 1-1 draw away to Champions League champions Real Madrid in the first leg of their competition semi-final on Tuesday, Pep Guardiola was clearly exhausted and said that his team needed to “defend better and attack better.”
Midway through the second half, Kevin De Bruyne scored a devastating goal of his own to offset Vinicius Junior’s magnificent opening strike.
Although City had the advantage at the outset, Eduardo Camavinga broke through the visitors’ press and provided the assist for Vinicius’ goal.
After playing sparingly for the first 45 minutes, Madrid was more aggressive after the interval, stroking the ball all over the place, only for De Bruyne to penetrate the superiority of the hosts.
On May 17, both sides will reassemble for the second leg at the Etihad.
Guardiola succinctly summed up the contest with one line when speaking to BT Sport: “When we were better they score, when they were better we score.”
The breathless Catalan coach continued: “It was a tight, tight game, Bernabeu semi-final is always difficult. We had good moments but sometimes it was difficult with the quality they have with the ball. But yeah, 1-1, it’s a final next Wednesday with our people next week.”
“We start really well in the second half as well,” Guardiola insisted. “Five, ten minutes, then after they got the game, we could not take it. They make a lot of passes, they put a lot of players on the left side, they are really, really good there. But after we make a fantastic goal from Kevin and we had some good moments. Then at the end they also have a few chances. It was a tight, tight game.”
Although Carlo Ancelotti’s team has found it difficult to keep up with Barcelona in the La Liga race, they are still a force to be reckoned with in the league, which Real Madrid has won a record 14 times. Guardiola said, “It is very demanding.
“They are so good, they have experience and quality. But now we travel to Manchester and we will see what we can do better. We you play these kinds of games it’s like a playoff, so the second [leg] you learn a lot from the first, hopefully we can learn to defend better and attack better.”
Erling Haaland didn’t have many brief opportunities to score in the first half and was kept out of the action.
Guardiola explained how Madrid muzzled the forward with 51 goals to his name this season. “The distance between the central defenders and the full-backs was occupied for attacking midfielders, for [Luka] Modric, for Toni Kroos, for [Fede] Valverde. So there was a twin central defender close to Erling, it was not easy for him.”