Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has declared that Manchester City are “not there yet” in terms of being considered a big team after Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Though they will fancy their chances of overturning the deficit at home next week, Pep Guardiola’s side looked short of their best on the night, with Tottenham’s energetic pressing throwing them off their stride – a now-familiar occurrence for City during the Spaniard’s management.
Last season, at the same stage, City were caught cold by Liverpool during a 3-0 loss in the first leg, which turned into a 5-1 aggregate defeat after they lost the return leg at home as well. And in the previous campaign, City won a wild first leg at home against Monaco by a score of 5-3, keeping the French side within reach of pulling off an upset which they duly completed with a 3-1 win in France to progress on away goals.
Gundogan, who was part of the Borussia Dortmund team that reached the 2013 final, where he scored in a 2-1 loss to Bayern Munich, says City are guilty of trying too hard in big European games such as Tuesday’s encounter.
“We were not brave enough in the game, there were many simple mistakes,” he told SportBild. “I have the feeling that we are nervous in important Champions League games. We have always made the wrong decisions.
“In such games, we always want to do something special because it means: Champions League semi-finals. Sometimes, less is more.”
The Germany midfielder pointed to Sergio Aguero’s penalty miss in the first half as a pivotal moment, believing that his team would have built on an early goal to put the tie to bed had the Argentine scored from the spot.
“After the missed penalty came the break. Such negative experiences always throw us back too much. If we put the penalty in, we would have taken Tottenham apart. That’s how we got out of the game.
“That must not happen to a big team. That’s why we’re not there yet.”
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