Manchester City impressively proved why they are hot contenders for the Champions League title. Nevertheless, players and coach didn’t really look satisfied.
4:0 led the Skyblues against Sporting Lisbon after 45 minutes – never has an away team led higher at the break in the Champions League knockout rounds. Just another broken record from the English super team that currently seems unbeatable.
The last defeat was more than two months ago and happened in the group match against Leipzig, which is no longer relevant from a sporting point of view, since then there have been twelve wins and one draw, and most recently the Citizens have also played three times in a row to nil.
“There is one rule in football… “
And yet, during the show of force in Lisbon, one could not shake the feeling that coach Pep Guardiola was not quite happy with his team’s performance. Again and again he dictated from the outside, puttered around in his coaching zone – and confirmed the impression after the game on “BT Sport”: “Some players stayed below their capabilities today,” said the Spaniard, who elaborated: “We lost simple balls. There is a rule in football – when you have the ball, don’t give it away. We didn’t follow that a lot today. We have to improve. “
“We can do better “
Not only he, but Bernardo Silva, who was named UEFA Player of the Match and scored two goals, agreed with his coach: “We were actually not good enough in the first half to lead 4-0. I think we can do better. “
For all his criticism, Guardiola was nevertheless “incredibly happy” with the result, but stressed once again: “The players know me. We have to keep working, we have to do better. We can do better.” Sporting should be anxious about the return match on 9 March.
