Visibly nervous, but with an expressed desire to hide that nervousness, Pep Guardiola addressed the media after the draw with RB Leipzig (1-1) in the first match of the round of 16 of the Champions League. At first glance, the result does not look so bad for the Cityzens, everything is still in their hands, the decisive match is at their field, so it seems that the Spanish expert was more annoyed by the journalist’s questions and statements than the missed triumph.UCL: Lukaku scores a game-winner, City fail to win in LeipzigTthe English champion had the control of the match in its biggest part, the advantage from the 27th minute, and in the end it could have easily happened that they went home defeated. Perhaps the most talented stopper of today – Josko Guardiol – brought the equalizer to the home team, while a few minutes earlier Benjamin Henrichs had a great chance…”I’m happy about the whole game, not only about the first half,” Guardiola wanted to let the journalists know right away that he wasn’t worried but then he went a bit more aggressive. “And what did you expect? To play a friendly match here? How many Leipzig matches have you watched? How many? People think that we should always win 4-0! That’s not reality! I’m sorry, we’re not able to. At this stage of the competition, only the best teams are left. We knew that very well. After all, this is our fourth match in ten days. A lot of away games, travel, people and their expectations. Despite everything that happened last night, we are still a good team working hard. We have done a lot of good things and will continue in that direction”.Pep Guardiola after Man City’s 1-1 draw away at Leipzig:”Some people expect us to come and win 4-0, I’m sorry, it’s not that easy…I didn’t see the penalty incident so I can’t comment.” pic.twitter.com/fMhDEQccMJ— Kyama (@Elijahkyama_) February 23, 2023 The Spaniard praises his rivals and reminds that the decision still ‘falls’ in the second leg…”They raised their lines in the second half, pressed more, created problems for us in build up, but even after conceding a goal we managed to come back and be dangerous in the last fifteen minutes. We had good chances in both halves”.##NAJAVA_MECA_7041957##The fact that Guardiola did not make a single change caused a lot of comment.”They played with six forwards. They are incredible players. What we had on the pitch at that moment was exactly what we needed. I worked in Germany, I know Leipzig well and I analyzed it well – we needed such kind of control. I didn’t want to touch the back four, Bernardo Silva was giving us a lot of control in the middle… Maybe I’ll go crazy with nine strikers in the second match.”Pep Guardiola: “It doesn’t mean that if I have five substitutions, I have to do substitutions. I am such a good manager to know what I have to do or not. Maybe in the second-leg I will decide to be crazy and play with nine strikers…” [via @HaytersTV]pic.twitter.com/qRMN4AV1pX— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) February 23, 2023 When asked what he said to the players during a short meeting on the field immediately after the match, he said:”I told them to keep their heads up, that it was really good and that it doesn’t matter whether people like it or not how we played. We played exactly the way we should”.In the end, Guardiola once again referred to the quality of his rivals…”I don’t know why you think Leipzig is a bad team? They beat Real Madrid here, they were much better than Bayern for the whole half… I have a lot of respect for them. You always write to a journalist and say how bad one team is, instead of praising the other, which was good”.The manager of Manchester City did not want to comment on the referees’ decision at the end of the game not to award a penalty for the handball of Benny Henrichs.Man City denied a penalty, that’s a clear Handball. pic.twitter.com/JY1rZ7wNeZ— Esau💙 (@Chitwaah) February 22, 2023
