Guardiola Bemoans Poor First Half As City Crash Out Of Champions League

Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola, has said his side’s lack of aggression and personality were the decisive factors as they failed to qualify for the quarter-final of the Champions League.

Guardiola failed to go beyond the round of 16 for the first time in his managerial career, after City was beaten 3-1 by Monaco on Wednesday night, leaving the visitors to pick up the pieces of another failed European campaign

Monaco needed to overturn a 5-3 deficit from the first leg deficit but French prodigy Kylian Mbappe, Fabinho and Tiemoue Bakayoko scored on a memorable European night for the principality club, as they cruised into the last eight of the competition on away goals.

The home side cruised into a 2-0 lead within 30 minutes, as the game looked rather too easy for them, which Guardiola attributed to a lack of intensity from his forward trio of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling.

City failed to muster any shot on target in the opening 45 minutes and it took until the 65th minute for Sergio Aguero to call goalkeeper Danijel Subasic into a sharp save.

“It’s not about the defense. Our strikers have to be aggressive and pick the ball up, but we didn’t. That’s why we are out,” Guardiola said.

“Our strength is to be aggressive without the ball. We were a little bit slow in everything, which is why we have conceded a lot of goals in Europe.”

The English side reacted after the break and Leroy Sane reduced the arrears as Monaco seemed to run out of steam, but their defence could not hold out when Tiemoue Bakayoko rising highest to head home the crucial goal.

“We wanted to show personality, not to let them think (that) they could pass and pass the ball,” Guardiola added.

“We forgot to do that in the first half. My mistake was being not able to convince them.

“The second half we had the chances and we didn’t take them and that is why we are out. And set-pieces are so important at this level.”

The result leaves Monaco as the only French team in the last eight after PSG was dumped out of the competition by Barcelona.

Monaco join holders Real Madrid, last year’s runners-up Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Leicester and Juventus in Friday’s draw.