Pep Guardiola said Manchester City have one “last chance” to salvage their Champions League campaign after a 4-2 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain left the 2023 European champions facing a humiliating early exit from the competition.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead early in the second half with goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland, City surrendered their advantage and ended up losing convincingly at the Parc des Princes.
The loss means that City must now beat Club Brugge at the Etihad next Wednesday to reach the playoff round. Anything other than a victory will see City eliminated.
But after seeing his team outplayed by PSG, Guardiola had no complaints about the result or City’s fate.
“We have a last chance against Brugge and if we don’t go through it’s because we don’t deserve it,” Guardiola told reporters. “We have to recover against Chelsea in our next game and just move forward.
Mateo Kovacic] was not possible or not good and we could not make the process.”
Guardiola said Manchester City could not “cope with” PSG in the transition game.
“We had to defend with the ball and it’s impossible to play well,” he said. “PSG played better in their games and couldn’t win. Today they were able to. In the big stages, the big teams, we struggle. We have to accept it. Recover and go to Chelsea. We have to recover our game.”
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