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Guardiola optimistic of comeback after Manchester City suffer Champions League thrashing by Real Madrid
12th March, 2026 06:49 AM
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is eyeing a possible comeback in the return leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in a week.
In his press briefing after City suffered a 3-0 defeat to hosts Real Madrid on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, Guardiola said that Manchester City will not give up on Champions League progress despite the punishment.
Overturning the deficit
City will need to overturn a three-goal deficit at home when the two sides meet again on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The Man City boss believes it will be a tall order but is hoping that the City fans can inspire his side to a remarkable turnaround against the 15-time winners of the trophy.
“Right now, not much,” he said when asked about City’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals. “Of course we’re going to try, and it is difficult right now. But we will be there with our people, and we will do better to be more active in the final third, and we will try,” he said.
Federico Valverde did all the damage for the home side with a first-half hat-trick, although it could have been worse had Gianluigi Donnarumma not saved Vinicius Junior’s penalty.
That could yet prove an important moment if Manchester City are to find a way past the Spanish giants in the second leg at the Etihad.
“3-0 is better than four, we cannot deny that,” Guardiola said.
“It’s difficult sometimes to control transitions when we lose the ball and they connect; they don’t put the ball away, and then players like Vinicius can run. I had the feeling that it was quite decent and well played.”
“We arrived, I don’t know how many times, to the byline. Individual actions from Jeremy [Doku], long balls in the second half, especially for Antoine [Semenyo] and Nico [O’Reilly], and then passes in the six-yard box – we were not able to [beat] Courtois.
“We miss that action in the first 50 minutes. The first goal was not well defended, and then after that, they have the quality.
“[It’s a] difficult result. Now we recover, go to West Ham, and then with our people we will try.”
Missing clinical edge
Additionally, Guardiola said some attacking moments were promising, but Manchester City were missing a clinical edge in the final third.
“I think we’ve tried to do our best but we didn’t create chances where Courtois had to intervene. We got into the box many times – when you are able to do that it means you have followed a good process,” he said.
“They are always very dangerous but I don’t have the feeling that Courtois has played a great game. We reached that line many times but we were just missing this detail.” Guardiola said.
