UCL: We buckled under the pressure, admits Guardiola

Spanish manager Pep Guardiola admitted that his Manchester City players buckled under pressure as they threw away a place in the Champions League final after a late collapse against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

City won the first leg of the semi-final 4-3 and were heading through to the final after Riyad Mahrez had put them ahead in the 73rd minute of the second leg, but Guardiola’s men crumbled in the final stages of the game, allowing Rodrygo to score twice in two minutes at the death to send the game into extra time.

Rúben Dias then handed Real a chance to seal an amazing comeback when he upended Karim Benzema in extra time and the France striker stroked the ball past Ederson to seal a stunning 6-5 aggregate win for the 13-times European champions.

“We didn’t suffer much [during the first 90 minutes],” Guardiola, the City manager, said. “We didn’t play our best but it’s normal in semi-finals, the players feel the pressure.

“In the first half we didn’t have rhythm, we were not good enough. After we scored we were better, we found our tempo and the players were comfortable.

 “In the last ten minutes you expect them to attack and you suffer and it didn’t happen. Then they put a lot of players in the box with Militao, Rodrygo, Vinicius, Asensio and they scored two goals.”

City are still on top of the Premier League, but Guardiola will have to wait another year to try to lift the Champions League, which has so far eluded him in his six-year spell at the Etihad Stadium.

The way in which his team collapsed clearly hurt the Catalan, whose last Champions League triumph came 11 years ago.

“In the dressing room the players are sad,” Guardiola added.

 “We were close but football is unpredictable. Sometimes it is like this and you have to accept it.”

Guardiola admitted that he would have to reinvigorate his players to ensure that the shock defeat does not impact their chances of lifting the Premier League title.

City are one point ahead of Liverpool with four matches left. “We will definitely have to lift them,” Guardiola said. “We need time to process that and come back with our people at home for the last four games.”

Thibaut Courtois, the Real goalkeeper, said that he knew that City would capitulate once his team had taken the game into extra time.

 “At 2-1, they were dead,” Courtois said. “I didn’t believe we were going to do it before the final minute because we weren’t doing well in front of goal.

 “Sometimes it doesn’t come off, but after that goal we knew anything could happen. We have eliminated very big teams who have spent a lot of money to try to win a Champions League.

“We have taken PSG, Chelsea and today’s win is more impressive because it was in the final minutes.”

The Belgium goalkeeper warned Liverpool that Real will be hard to beat in the final in Paris later this month.

“If Real Madrid goes to the final, they go to win it,” Courtois said.

Carlo Ancelotti, the Real head coach, felt that his team’s previous comebacks against PSG and Chelsea inspired them to victory.

“It is the big history of the club to keep going when it looks like it is gone,” Ancelotti said. “It is true, the game was close to finished and we were finding the last bit of energy we could.

 “Psychologically we were better in extra time. I didn’t have time to ever think we had lost the game. City had good control of the game but at the last opportunity we were able to go to extra-time. I am really happy to be there in the final but we are used to it.”