Pep Guardiola rues missed opportunities after Real Madrid knocked out Manchester City with a sensational comeback

Real Madrid scripted one of the biggest comebacks in Champions League history when Rodrygo Goes scored a brace in two minutes to force extra time after Riyad Mahrez handed the lead to Manchester City. In extra time, Real Madrid got a penalty and Karim Benzema thumped it past Ederson to complete the comeback and book a ticket to the finals in Paris.

The result sent Real Madrid to their 17th Champions League finals whereas Manchester City will have to wait longer for their maiden Champions League title. The Citizens were in a great position but they failed to close out the game. But Los Blancos held their nerve and kept pushing which resulted in a crumble from the City defence and resulted in the quick fire brace from the young Brazilian.

After the match, Guardiola was visibly frustrated and felt it was one of the toughest defeats for him to take in the tournament. He said, “I have had defeats in the Champions League, I had tough defeats at Barcelona when we could not reach the final. But it is tough for us, I cannot deny that. We were so close to the Champions League final.”

Guardiola shared how his players could not dictate terms in the first half and had a much better second half. But he was left ruing the chances they missed to kill the game. “We didn’t play well in the first half, we didn’t find our game. The second half was much better and after the goal, we had control. We found our game but unfortunately we could not finish. The players gave everything. We were so close,” the Manchester City boss added.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men have made it a habit of making comebacks as they defeated Paris Saint Germain and Chelsea after coming from behind and now they have pulled off the biggest heist in Champions League history against City.

“It has happened many times in their history,” said Guardiola. “This will have a positive impact on the Real Madrid players but I don’t know about us really. We didn’t suffer much until they scored, but we didn’t play our best,” Guardiola concluded.

Real Madrid will now play Liverpool in the Champions League final, which happens to be a rematch of 2019 and hence Jurgen Klopp and his players will be ready for vengeance.