Guardiola has happy day as City win in Germany
sinsheim — Pep Guardiola described Manchester City’s 2-1 win at Hoffenheim on Tuesday as one of his happiest days at the club and he believes key lessons learned from the away win will bring his side future Champions League success.
David Silva’s late goal sealed the away victory as City got their Champions League campaign back on track after the shock 2-1 defeat at home to Lyon a fortnight ago.
Silva poached the winner with just three minutes left and Guardiola was delighted with his team’s fighting spirit and patience against Hoffenheim’s dogged defending.
City were sleeping as they fell behind after just 44 seconds through Ishak Belfodil, but Sergio Aguero quickly equalised before Silva’s late strike, stealing the ball away from Stefan Posch to score and earn a deserved win.
“Losing at home (to Lyon) made things tough and conceding so early (at Hoffenheim) was hard, but we fought against everything today,” said Guardiola.
“We have to live this kind of situation, the previous two seasons weren’t easy to qualify, but we still went through with one or two games left.
“I think it will come down to our final game this time.
“This competition isn’t always a red carpet. Manchester City is a fantastic club, but we don’t have a history of having to fight and we fought for absolutely everything here.”
Having steered City to the quarter-finals last season, Guardiola said what his team learnt in Hoffenheim will help in the long term.
“I am pretty sure what we have learnt here will be good for us in the future,” he said. —