Pep: Blues will bounce back from Euro woe
PEP Guardiola insists City will recover from their agonising defeat to Lyon to attempt to reach the Champions League semi-finals next season.
The Blues were firm favourites to progress against Lyon in the one-legged affair, but were below-par on the night when everything went against them.
Lyon deservedly led at half-time, before Kevin de Bruyne’s strike eventually pulled them level.
But a controversial VAR call, followed by an unbelievable Raheem Sterling miss and an Ederson error saw Lyon stun the Blues and progress to the semifinals.
It’s the third year in succession where City have bowed out at the last eight, losing to Liverpool and Tottenham and now Lyon.
But Guardiola says his side are good enough to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, when asked if the Lyon defeat was City following the same script as their previous exits.
He said: “Now, yes, but after the break and when we start the competition again we will recover, we will restart it again. And, you know, to try to do it again.
“Of course, I’m not able with these guys to break this line to the quarterfinals. So three years in a row and we are out.
“I think what these guys has done we deserve to do it again, or to go through and reach the semi-finals, but we are not able. But life is, is how you stand up again and next season we’re going to try again.”
ERIC Garcia remained tight-lipped when asked about his future after City exited the Champions League at the hands of Lyon.
Garcia started against the French side in a new-look back three, in what was only his second ever Champions League appearance. The show of faith from Pep Guardiola came just over a week after it was announced the Spaniard has told City he will not sign a new contract at the Etihad.
Guardiola had hinted that Garcia’s demotion to the bench for the Real Madrid game was for ‘other reasons,’ but he was recalled for the quarter final against Lyon.
A lot has changed since Guardiola told the media of Garcia’s decision, not least at his former club Barcelona, who are picking up the pieces from their humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich. Barcelona want to bring Garcia back to the Nou Camp, but their valuation of the 19-year-old is different to City’s, who want a similar fee to the €23m plus €12m bonuses they just paid for Ferran Torres.
Speaking after the disappointing defeat to Lyon, Garcia told Spanish media that he would not be speaking about his future, simply saying ‘we will see.’
He told Movistar (via Goal): “The only thing I can say is that now we will have some days of rest and then we will see.
“I cannot say anything else, least of all after this elimination.”
Garcia did offer his thoughts on the Lyon defeat, saying they were not able to carry out their gameplan.
“We are very sad about this defeat, we came here with a plan to hurt Lyon,” he explained.
“We had chances score and then on the counter they made it 2-1. We have been working here for years and there is a clear upward trend. We thought we had a great chance because we were three games away from being champions.
“The quality of the players and all the staff is beyond doubt. Year after year we have to keep trying and it will surely come in the end.”
The disappointment of the defeat was compounded by the realisation that David Silva has played his last game for the club, ending a glorious decade at the Etihad with a low-key seven minute cameo in Lisbon.
Garcia said: “Of course [we wanted the final for Silva]. One of our goals was to win for him.”