Pep slams team for listless display
MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola criticised his heavily rotated side for “forgetting to attack” despite reaching the Champions League quarter-finals 5-2 on aggregate over Basel on Wednesday.
City suffered a first home defeat in 15 months as the Swiss champions came from behind to win 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium and salvage some pride from their last-16 tie after being thrashed 4-0 on home turf in the first leg three weeks ago.
“From tomorrow we will be happy to be in the quarterfinals for the second time in this club’s history. We are new in that position, so we are so happy for that,” said Guardiola.
“Even the first half was quite good, in the second half we forgot to attack, we forgot to play.
“Just to pass to pass for itself is nothing, so the second half was really, really poor.”
Guardiola could afford the luxury of making six changes from Sunday’s dominant 1-0 win over Chelsea, but still saw his side extend their aggregate advantage early on when Gabriel Jesus tapped home after just eight minutes. However, Mohamed Elyounoussi exposed some slack City defending to smash in an equaliser for the visitors nine minutes later before Michael Lang rocketed home a spectacular winner 19 minutes from time.
“I understand after we see the second half the people that say the team is not ready to fight for everything,” added Guardiola.
However, the Catalan coach hopes a three-week break following Monday’s trip to Stoke will leave his side refreshed for the last eight.