“A talk from the heart”.. What did Guardiola say after City’s exit from the European Champions League against Real Madrid?

English Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola saw that his team, with its new look, needed time to match its previous achievements under his leadership, after being eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid for the third season in a row, hoping that his team would have the appetite for titles similar to the royal team.

Brazilian Vinicius Junior scored two goals in the 2-1 loss suffered by City, which played with ten players from the 20th minute after its Portuguese captain Bernardo Silva was sent off for blocking Vinicius’ ball with his hand on the goal line at Etihad Stadium, on Tuesday.
But most of the damage was done in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, thanks to a hat-trick by Uruguayan Federico Valverde.
Guardiola regretted his team’s inability to truly test the defending champions a record 15 times due to Silva’s expulsion.
Despite the result, the confrontation was much closer compared to the 6-3 overall victory for Real Madrid in the two teams’ meeting last season.
City underwent a major rebuilding process during the past three transfer periods, and Silva is among the few remaining from the squad that won four consecutive English Premier League titles between 2021 and 2024 under the leadership of the Spanish coach.
Guardiola’s men will have an immediate opportunity to make a quick comeback when they face Arsenal in the League Cup final on Sunday.
But they are nine points behind the Gunners in the league title race, and they will also face Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals next month.
“We are still incomplete,” said Guardiola, who won 15 major titles during his decade with the club. “There are still moments when we need to be more decisive, but my feeling is that it is a matter of time.”
He added: “We are not a complete team, this is the truth. I trained a team in Manchester City that was integrated in all aspects, but now it is not, but we have the final on Sunday, and the FA Cup match against Liverpool, and the league is still open. We need to finish the league strong, and make good decisions this summer, and we will return next season to the Champions League.”
Guardiola had led City to win the Champions League in the 2023 season for the first time in its history, but only one continental title in ten years remains a small missing point in his record since his arrival in Manchester.
However, he said he wants City to live up to the expectations prevailing at Real Madrid, where anything other than winning the tournament is a failure. “I would like this club to be like Madrid, where if you don’t win the Champions League it is a failure. That’s the pressure. At City that’s not the expectation. Maybe with time we’ll get there.”