Pep Guardiola snaps back at reporter after Man City loss to Real Madrid

Pep Guardiola was adamant that Manchester City were better than Real Madrid defensively following his side’s quarter-final exit from the Champions League. Following a 1-1 draw (4-4 on aggregate), the reigning champions were dumped out of the competition on penalties.

Madrid opened the scoring in the 12th minute against City, with the visitors capitalising on a catalogue of defensive errors to fire past Ederson at the second time of asking. Guardiola’s side pushed for an equaliser and their efforts were rewarded in the 76th minute when a poor clearance from Antonio Rudiger provided Kevin De Bruyne with time and space inside the penalty area, and he made no mistake from close range.

After a stalemate in extra time, Rudiger made amends for his error by scoring the decisive penalty in front of the City faithful following misses from Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic.

Guardiola was full of praise for Madrid after his side’s defeat, though he was not willing to entertain the idea of his team not being the best team defensively on the night. “No, we were better defensively because we conceded less chances than them,” Guardiola said.

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“So we defended better than them, that’s for sure.” Both teams defended well across the two nights, with City minimising the threat of the La Liga outfit with extended spells of possession.

Madrid, in contrast, were forced to defend plenty as a result but often looked comfortable penned into their own penalty area, making themselves incredibly tricky to break down.