As the tweet below summed up, on few occasions will Pep Guardiola beat Real Madrid and have so much frustration built up inside him.
Crazy to think Manchester City scored four goals against the 13-time European champions, and it’s Real Madrid who finished the match the happiest.
— Amos Murphy (@AmosMurphy_) April 26, 2022
His Manchester City team were for large swathes of the match the better side against Real Madrid, holding a two-goal lead on three different occasions. Unable to put away numerous chances however, a late Karim Benzema penalty left the Spanish giants alive.
During his flash interview with BT Sport, Guardiola lamented his team’s nervous build-up, before eventually saying his players played a fantastic game.
"For us, for Manchester City, we are so proud."
"All we can do is perform how we performed… I cannot ask anything else."
"Football is a fantastic spectacle… Congratulations to Carlo Ancelotti."
Even Pep Guardiola can't get over how good that game was! ?
? @TheDesKelly pic.twitter.com/kKcMXNK0zU
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 26, 2022
Despite his words, Guardiola seemed irritated at the beginning of the interview and it’s easy to imagine a reality in which he is masking some deep frustration.
There was certainly an element of that in Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva’s interview, in which they expressed a similar sentiment but were a little more honest about the fact they couldn’t kill the game off when they had the chance.
For his part, Carlo Ancelotti was unhappy with the defending on show by his team but did admit that he was happy with the mental strength shown by his players.