Man City versus Schalke was supposed to be a cakewalk for the Sky Blues in the Champions League last-16.
Nonetheless, Premier League champions seemed to be outplayed by the opponent in the first half, making their coach express disbelief on his squad.
Indeed, Man City may still ease to victory over the Royal Blues once the 180 minutes of the two legged tie completes.
Yet, after the first leg in Germany on Wednesday, Man City are narrowly ahead in the tie after they staged a memorable late comeback to win the match 3-2.
The hosts won two first half penalties, and Nabil Bentaleb dispatched both spot-kicks.
To compound Man City’s woes, Nicolas Otamendi was sent off in the second half.
For this very reason, Pep revealed that with that play, his team cannot win the Champions League title.
It was a great result. But we gave them two penalties, we gave them a red card and in this competition that is not too good.
Still we are not ready to fight for the Champions League. We are still not ready to fight for the later stages.
We played good but still we lost some easy balls which we are not allowed to do in this competition.
However, he accepted that the results were exceptional but his team needs improvement.
Manchester City will play a return match against Schalcke at Etihad Stadium in March 12.