Pep Guardiola defiantly stood by his decision to drop Kevin de Bruyne after Manchester City’s Champions League hopes were dented by Tottenham.
The quadruple-chasers must turn around a 1-0 quarter-final first leg defeat when Mauricio Pochettino’s side travel to the Etihad next week.
But Guardiola was adamant he made the right call with his cautious approach at the New Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which saw him select Ilkay Gundogan ahead of De Bruyne in a bid to keep the tie tight.
“I decided to play with two holding midfielders in that position – Gundogan and Fernandinho – to be a bit more solid,” said the City manager after Heung-Min Son’s strike gave Spurs the advantage at the half-way point. “It’s not the issue. I know it’s tough for him, but if Kevin and Gundogan play, we have the second leg.
“We spoke about that. It’s 180 minutes.
“We played an incredible game. The Champions League is so serious, we conceded few chances and we created chances, more than the penalty.
“We controlled the game. When you analyse the result, it’s not the best one, but it is 0-1. If we want to go through in the latter stages we have to make these kind of comebacks to try to go through.
“If we are not able then we are not able, but I don’t have the feeling we played bad.
“With the control we had in the first half and especially in the second half, we arrived there, but the result was not good. At the same time, last season was much worse.”
An unusually inhibited performance from City looked like a hangover from last season’s 3-0 first leg defeat to Liverpool at the same stage of the competition.
Guardiola’s attempt to contain Pochettino’s side was evidence of his determination to avoid the type of collapse his side suffered at Anfield and was virtually impossible to recover from in the second leg.
