Guardiola confident City will regain consistency
marseille — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was confident his team would find the consistency they need after their 3-0 victory at Olympique de Marseille in the Champions League.
City took control of Group C with six points from two games, leading Porto and Olympiakos by three points while OM are bottom of the table after two defeats.
Guardiola’s side got off to a slugglish start in the Premier League, sitting in 13th place with eight points from five games, five behind leaders Everton who have played one more match.
“We have to accept the criticism. We play every three days, when you win it’s good but if you don’t people want to destroy everything. But it’s about the chairman and everyone else understanding,” said Guardiola.
“Part of the criticism was right, but you’ve got to accept it. It’s part of our job. It’s about where we’ve come from in the last month, with lack of preparation, injuries and Covid-19 but the Champions League is in a good place now.
“I’m sure we’re going to find that consistency.”
While Marseille proved to be an easy target on Tuesday, City were lively throughout and they made their domination count and defended well when the hosts briefly threatened after the break.
“We played really well, we didn’t concede much and we were in control, patient and aggressive without the ball. I’m so satisfied with the performance and result, it’s always difficult to win away,” said Guardiola, who hinted City liked playing against teams fielding a five-man defence. “We can play on both sides, we tried to play high and wide to stretch the pitch. Raheem Sterling was exceptional, Phil (Foden) as well,” he said.
“We didn’t expect them to play five at the back until we saw the team. Porto was the same. As much as we play against five at the back we started to take the control and rhythm.
“We were so stable defensively. I’m so satisfied with the way we played.”
Holders Bayern Munich continued their perfect start to their title defence as Real Madrid had Casemiro’s late goal to thank for scrambling a 2-2 draw away to Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Liverpool also made it six points out of a possible six in Europe this season, after
Bayern needed a late Joshua Kimmich strike to claim a 2-1 win at Lokomotiv Moscow in Group A.
Leon Goretzka put the Germans ahead early on in front of a limited crowd in the Russian capital, but Anton Miranchuk tucked in an equaliser for Lokomotiv in the second half — Miranchuk’s twin brother Aleksei scored for Atalanta in the Champions League last week.
But Bayern were not to be denied a record 13th straight win in the competition as Kimmich controlled a Javi Martinez pass and volleyed home low from outside the box 11 minutes from time.
In the same group Atletico Madrid came from behind to beat Salzburg 3-2, with Joao Felix grabbing their late winner.
In Germany, Real were heading for another defeat in Group B, six days after losing 3-2 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk, as Marcus Thuram netted twice for Gladbach, either side of half-time.
But Casemiro set up Karim Benzema to reduce the deficit in the 87th minute and the Brazilian midfielder then scored himself deep in injury time to salvage a point for Zinedine Zidane’s team.
Meanwhile, Liverpool built on their 1-0 victory at Ajax last week by defeating Danish champions Midtjylland 2-0 in a Group D match at Anfield —