Pep Guardiola Comments on Barcelona vs. Manchester City, Claudio Bravo, More

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola conceded after his side’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona on Wednesday that the game was over as soon as Sky Blues goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was sent off in the 53rd minute.

City were only 1-0 down at the Camp Nou in their UEFA Champions League Group C clash against Guardiola’s former club when Bravo was given his marching orders for deliberate handball, having gifted possession to Luis Suarez.

Barca subsequently scored three more goals in the final half-hour of action, and the City boss admitted there was no way back for his side once they were down to 10 men, per the Daily Mail’s Chris Wheeler: “It’s always difficult to play Barcelona with 11 players. With 10, the game was over. Until then, the game was well-balanced. We know Barca. Their strikers punish you. When [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and Suarez attack you, it’s very complicated. We played with personality and were brave.”

Guardiola insisted, though, that Wednesday’s loss was not the worst of his managerial career, instead citing Real Madrid’s 4-0 drubbing of his Bayern Munich side in the Champions League semi-final in 2014, per Sport: “No. [this was not the worst defeat of my career]. That was against Real Madrid [with] Bayern Munich because there I didn’t make the right decision. We are a new club. We come here, we play, we arrive, we associate well, we create chances. I remember two or three chances.” 

Messi’s hat-trick put the game out of sight after 69 minutes before Neymar completed the rout with one minute to play, …

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