“What do you expect?!” – Pep Guardiola hits back at critics of Man City’s Champions League result

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hit back at critics of his side’s Champions League last-16 first-leg result against RB Leipzig.

Riyad Mahrez had put his side into the lead in the first-half, in an opening 45 minutes totally dominated by Manchester City but only leading to a single-goal margin at the half-time interval – similar to events at Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.

The second-half saw a totally different performance from the hosts, with Marco Rose’s side applying much more pressure on the Manchester City defence and creating plenty of goalscoring opportunities through their dynamic attack.

Such pressure prevailed in the end, as the in-demand and ever-impressive Croatian central defender Joško Gvardiol rose above Ruben Dias from a corner to send a header past a helpless Ederson in the Manchester City goal.

Some after the game were keen to criticise Manchester City’s inability to put more than one goal past their German opponents, and once again fail to keep a clean sheet – however, manager Pep Guardiola was keen to hit back to broadcasters.

“What do you expect (in the second-half)? We’d play a friendly game here?! How many games have you seen of RB Leipzig? Come on,” exclaimed the Manchester City boss. “People expect when we are here we are going to win 0-5? It’s not a reality.”

Guardiola continued, “It’s a competition where, in the group stages, many important teams are out. And it’s difficult. We knew it. Our fourth game in ten days, all of them away from home, the travels.”

“We are a good team. We do many, many good things and we continue to do this.” If the people expect that we would come here and win 0-4, I’m sorry. We are not able to do this.”

Speaking on that improved second-half from RB Leipzig, Pep Guardiola highlighted the Bundesliga side’s higher press and City’s problems in building their own attacks through patience and possession.

Despite that, the Catalan coach believes that Manchester City had good chances in both halves of the affair to win the game, and insisted that he was happy with the overall performance from his side once again.

“They (RB Leipzig) make a step forward (in the second-half), they press even higher, we had more problems to make build-up. But after the goal we conceded, we came back, and we made a good last 15/20 minutes.”

“We had good chances in both sides, in both halves and we are going to decide (the tie) in Manchester. I am happy for all of the game, not just the first half.”

For now, Manchester City’s attentions will turn to two other competitions, with the return of the relentless Premier League schedule on the immediate horizon as the reigning Champions travel to Bournemouth on Saturday evening.

City remain on their travels in the days that follow, returning to the south of England to take on Bristol City at Ashton Gate in the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup – capping off a streak of challenging away fixtures across three competitions this month.