Pep Guardiola is “so proud” of “really, really good” Manchester City performance in Juventus defeat | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that he is “so proud” of his players following their 2-0 defeat to Juventus in the UEFA Champions League.

The Premier League champions fell to 22nd place in Europe’s premier club competition after a heavy 4-1 defeat inflicted by Sporting CP last month, and a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord, was added to with further misery in Turin.

City found themselves engaged in somewhat of a stalemate in the first-half, struggling to create clear-cut chances and their best opportunity squandered by a mixture of a poor choice of finishing from Erling Haaland and a quality goalkeeping save from Juventus’ stopper.

Dusan Vlahovic would move the Old Lady into a deserved advantage during the second-half heading home from close range, before Weston McKennie would strike acrobatically unmarked inside the City penalty area on the counter-attack.

Speaking to television broadcasters after Manchester City’s defeat in Turin, Pep Guardiola was upbeat about the manner of the loss and the overall performance showcased by his side against Juventus on Wednesday night.

“We played good, really, really good,” the City coach insisted. “We missed the last pass, the last action when we arrived, we conceded few [chances], of course in some transitions it happens but I’m so proud of these players!

“I think that they give everything and they tried and now we live in this period, and hopefully we can change to good results. I know it’s difficult, always it’s difficult in the Champions League, but we played really good.”

Offering further personal analysis on the clash in Italy, Pep Guardiola issued praise on their opponents and Italian teams as a whole, particularly their ability to defend deep and cause problems for teams like City in their build-up process.

“We have done really, really well. We didn’t lose many balls that had happened in the past and we tried, we arrived in the positions, but against Italian teams that defend so deep and so compact, it’s not easy,” Guardiola said.

“They are the masters of these kind of situations, but even with that, we played who we are, we missed the result, but the performance is there.”

But where does this leave Manchester City and their hopes of a place in the last-16 of the UEFA Champions League? Guardiola is well aware of the situation and believes just a single point could secure themselves a play-off place for the knock-out rounds.

“We have two games, we need one point maybe, one victory, and we have to change with the last one at home. The situation is because of the game against Feyenoord and especially Inter Milan that we played really good in as well, and Feyenoord when it is 3-0 with 15 minutes [left] that created the problems.”

Guardiola continue, “But when you got to Sporting in that moment we had, go to Turin, Paris, three games away were really, really tough, you have to accept. When we turn around we’ll not forget that period, we’ll appreciate more what we’ve done, what we’re going to do in future, and now it’s continue.”

Manchester City return to action on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League as Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United visit the Etihad Stadium in a derby day clash that could very easily go either way.