Manchester City dreamed of becoming the first team to win a second treble in a row. That dream was shattered in the Champions League quarter-finals. A record 14-time champion Real Madrid defeated the reigning champions 4-3 in a tiebreaker. However, City coach Pep Guardiola is not regretting the broken dream. Rather, he gave credit to the opponent Real Madrid for the victory.
Real Madrid went out after losing to this city in the last semi-final. Ancelotti’s team finally avenged that loss at the Etihad Stadium. However, the record 14-time champion Real Madrid could not win at the Etihad Stadium at the scheduled time. The winner had to go to a tiebreaker. Madrid’s elite defeated current champions Man City 4-3 in the shootout.
The first leg of the quarter-finals was a 3-3 draw. In the second leg, the score at the scheduled time was 1-1. With both legs tied at 4-4, the match went into extra time. However, there was no goal. “Congratulations to Real Madrid,” Guardiola said after the match. They defended so deeply that there was incredible unity. We have done everything. I have no regrets about not doing that either. Defense, attack tried exceptionally in all departments. But unfortunately we didn’t win.’
This is unfortunate. City took 33 shots in the match. Madrid had 8 compared to that. They got 18 corners against the visitors’ 1 corner! After that, Guardiola’s men could not do anything against them. Guardiola also admitted his failure, ‘Football is a game of goals. They took the penalty better than us. Everything was wonderful. In case of penalty you win something, the other side wins something. But the way we played, it should have ended earlier. But I could not use the opportunities. We tried our best. Even then it wasn’t enough.’
#regrets #Guardiola
