Guardiola reveals ‘one year of pain’ behind Man City’s large win
The treble stays firmly on the playing cards for City, who may safe the Premier League title this weekend and have an FA Cup last to return in opposition to Manchester United at first of subsequent month.
Per week later they may journey to Istanbul to face Inter Milan, after hammering Real 4-0 in the second leg of the semi-final tie in a outstanding efficiency, as Bernardo Silva scored twice and Julian Alvarez netted late on, with Eder Militao additionally turning Manuel Akanji’s flicked header into his personal web.
It was a humbling exit for the Champions League holders, 5-1 on combination they usually struggled to even get on the ball for a lot of the match on the Etihad. This was a 12 months on from once they had been inflicting distress on City, Real scoring twice in stoppage-time to ship the semi-final to extra-time final season earlier than Karim Benzema struck to knock Guardiola’s aspect out.
Real went on to elevate the trophy, beating Liverpool within the last, whereas City had been pressured to mirror on one other season the place their Champions League dream fell brief. Guardiola felt final season’s late collapse on the Bernabeu impressed the dominant show this time.
“I had the feeling that we had one year of pain in our gut, our stomach,” Guardiola informed BT Sport.
“I think today everything went out that we had. It was so painful last season. When the people say lack of character of these players, in one year we showed again how special this group of players are.”
He added: “We had all of us the feeling that we were ready. It was calm, they didn’t make a lot of jokes. I didn’t feel tension, or anxious in any faces of behaviour. I had the feeling that today we were ready to do a good performance.”
Silva put City in entrance with a left-footed strike, simply as Thibaut Courtois’ heroics in objective threatened to frustrate the hosts, earlier than he added a second earlier than half-time with a looped header that beat David Alaba on the road.
There was hypothesis final summer season over Silva’s future, and there’s already speak of a possible transfer away on the finish of this season, however Guardiola made it clear simply how a lot he values the Portuguese star.
“In this type of game, Bernardo is always there,” the City boss mentioned.
“Always I’ve said, he’s one of the best players I have ever seen in my life.”