Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says his side will have to put their disappointing 3-2 loss to bitter rivals Manchester United in Saturday’s Premier League clash and focus on next week’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg.
City had the chance to wrap up the Premier League title when they went 2-0 up thanks to first half goals from Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan.
But three second half goals from Paul Pogba (brace) and Chris Smalling made sure City would have to postpone their title celebrations.
Commenting on the outcome of the game, Guardiola praised his side for their performance but lamented some calls that went against his side.
“A special day for United which is a pity,” Guardiola said in his post-match interview. “We did absolutely everything in the first half but then for 10-15 minutes we conceded goals. It is what it is.
“But we move forward. We did everything in the first half, we played with courage and created so many chances. Some penalties in the first half, some in the second half but we have to improve.
“We were not good enough in the end. The schedule is like this, that’s why this competition is so tough.
“We will try to pick ourselves up for Liverpool, we are professionals.”
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager expressed his sympathy for his players and fans following the painful loss to United.
“We did everything, the quality was really good. The first half the game was almost won we were almost there, in 10 minutes they recovered.
A little sad for fans and players, we will try to be in a good mood next Tuesday.
“They found their game, found their actions, they have spirit, but we did everything to win the game.”
He added: “Our team tried to create and attack, that is what we have done all season, we tried to produce all of that quality and goals. You have to defend a little better in the second half, but it is football but. As far as intention no complaints.
“Did we play bad? It would be good if you try to understand, that we played good football. You have to judge the performance and the way they played not only to look at the result make a judgement.”
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