Pep Guardiola spoke with visible frustration after Manchester City were eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid, insisting his team had been the better side across the two legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest challenge has been [J\u00fcrgen] Klopp,\u201d Guardiola said, recalling his enthralling Premier League battles with Liverpool over the years. He added of European opposition: \u201cTo play against Real Madrid so many times, with the generation we had, we were good enough. We won both matches. Statistically, we were similar; they eliminated us more often, but based on how we played, I think they know that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if Madrid were deserved winners, Guardiola\u2019s reply was laconic: \u201c1\u20135 … congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the tie was decided Guardiola went onto the pitch to shake hands with the Real Madrid squad. Most exchanges were routine, but an encounter with centre back Antonio R\u00fcdiger escalated. The pair remained locked in a handshake while words were exchanged and both had to be separated by members of each side. The Real Madrid defender appeared to be doing most of the talking; Nathan Ak\u00e9 intervened as a peacemaker before Los Blancos boss \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa managed to drag his player away.<\/p>\n
The defeat renewed the debate over City\u2019s European record. City\u2019s limited success on the continental stage \u2014 one title win in 10 seasons \u2014 is frequently cited by critics. Guardiola noted that only Carlo Ancelotti has won more European Cups than he has.<\/p>\n
He suggested expectations have been shaped by his early achievements. \u201cEverybody wants to fire me!\u201d he said. He continued: \u201cListen, I started my career really young, in the second team in Barcelona and we were promoted. And my first season, after Barcelona won the treble, great success, and after, if my teams don\u2019t win the treble, they are a failure. I know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first season here, you remember, \u2018When are you going to win the Champions League?\u2019 We won the league with 100 points. \u2018When are you going to win the Champions League?\u2019 In the end, we won it. \u2018When are you going to win the Champions League?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The club record from 2016\u201317 to 2025\u201326 in the Champions League includes a 2022\u201323 winners finish against Inter, a 2020\u201321 final versus Chelsea and several eliminations by Real Madrid in recent seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola defended City\u2019s European record after exit to Real Madrid, insisting City were superior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,987],"tags":[1162,1047],"class_list":["post-8952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-real-madrid","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}