Mateo Kovacic admits his “head is still very hot” after Manchester City’s defeat to Real Madrid | OneFootball

Manchester City midfielder Mateo Kovacic has admitted that his “head is still very hot” after the club’s 2-3 defeat to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.

The Premier League champions succumbed to a hugely disappointing defeat at the hands of a familiar foe in European competition earlier in the week, despite leading the game by a 2-1 scoreline heading into the closing moments.

The result now means that City must win by a two-goal margin in the Spanish capital on Wednesday night in order to secure themselves a place in the last-16 of the competition and knockout one of the favourites for the title in the process.

And having bounced back from defeat with a convincing 4-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon, there may now be reason to be optimistic once again despite the outbursts of emotion that initially followed the loss on Tuesday.

Speaking in the aftermath of Manchester City’s dramatic European defeat, Mateo Kovacic told Sky Sports in a separate interview, “To concede two in five minutes… The head is still very hot and it’s difficult to explain. You don’t have answers because these aren’t tactical things.”

The Croatian midfielder continued, “It’s just little mistakes that happen and end up in a goal from nowhere and you’re losing 2-3. It’s happened a lot this season where we concede and aren’t on it.

“Everybody needs to look at himself and do the best possible to be better, try to win the next game, because games are coming and coming and you have to be ready.”

Opening up on the season as a whole and the difficulties faced by the club, that are seemingly still ongoing, Kovacic said, “We started the season very well and entered a hole, difficult situations, from November.

“We take two steps ahead where we play good and then a little setback. Every mistake we do ends in a goal, and from games we’re almost winning we concede from nowhere. It’s tough, it’s never happened here but like I always say; in football, moments can define the season.

“It can go a bad way and a good way, and we’ll look to change the season a good way because there are still a lot of games to play.”

Pep Guardiola will almost certainly be buoyed by the performances of Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez, and Omar Marmoush during the win over Newcastle, with the latter scoring his first goal for the club as part of a 14-minute hat-trick against the Magpies.

Gonzalez could also be called into action having missed the first-leg through injury, while the Uzbek defender may be thrust into the ultimate footballing limelight amid concerns over the availability of Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake – who were absent from the win over Newcastle.