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Pep Guardiola admits Man City’s ‘penalty problem’ could y jeopardize their chances of winning the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola has confirmed the change of Manchester City penalty taker as he acknowledges that Man City’s “penalty problem” may jeopardize their chances of winning the Champions League after Mahrez’s miss against Dortmund.
Guardiola stated that Riyad Mahrez will take a break from taking penalties after missing another one on Tuesday.
In the 0-0 draw against Borussia Dortmund, Gregor Kobel stopped a shot from Mahrez after he had previously missed from 12 yards out in the Champions League match against Copenhagen.
The City winger is not the only one to have missed a penalty in the six years since Guardiola took over; Phil Foden, Gabriel Jesus, and Raheem Sterling, the latter two of whom have since left the team, all missed penalties last season alone.
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Sergio Aguero, Ilkay Gundogan, and Kevin De Bruyne all missed penalty shots during the 2020–21 season, bringing City’s overall performance under Guardiola (excluding shootouts) to 25 missed efforts from 80 attempts.
Mahrez failed to convert his own penalty this week, costing City the game in Dortmund, but ultimately it didn’t matter because a point was still enough to win the group. Pep has made a decision on Man City’s penalty taker, he said:
“I admire the courage and bravery of the guys who take the penalties, I don’t know how many million penalties we’ve missed. We’ve done it in this competition many times,
“Riyad was exceptional two or three years ago, he shoots the penalty to go 1-1 here [in Dortmund] to help us reach the semi for the first time [in 2021]. Lately, he missed. He will reflect. He can take a break now with the penalties. He has the mentality to go there and do it. The teams are physically strong and we give advantage to them – it happened too many times. It’s many players.”