Pep Guardiola slammed downplayed hi team’s Champions League victory over Schalke 04.
Guardiola claims that Manchester City will not be able to challenge for European glory if his team fails to learn from their fairy-tale 3-2 win at Germany with 10 men.
During the after game interview, the City manager said, “We will not go far in this competition unless we improve,”
“At the end, the quality of (Leroy) Sane and (Raheem) Sterling made the difference.
“The result is incredibly good, but we gave the first two penalties away and the red card, so we are not ready to fight for the Champions League.”
City were close to losing the game with a goal difference, 10 men and 20 minutes left.
Leroy Sane came off the bench to score a magnificent goal before Raheem Sterling swung in the last minutes of the game to give City the lead.
Schalke was leading at half-time as the VAR intervened twice to give the team penalties. Nabil Bentaleb converted the two penalties, canceling out Aguero’s opener.
Sane who came in with 12 minutes left, scored a magnificent free-kick against his former club.
“I wanted to shoot from that position as I have already scored from there and the goal gave us confidence, which set us up to win,” said the Germany international.
“We did not get start well, but I’m glad we won and getting three goals away is good.”
City still have some work to do in the return leg on Mar 12 with Fernandinho, who was booked when conceding the second spot-kick, and Otamendi both suspended.