‘Incomplete’ Manchester City not what they once were, says Pep Guardiola

LONDON – Pep Guardiola believes a new-look Manchester City need time to match the feats of his earlier years in charge, after bowing out of the Champions League to Real Madrid for the third consecutive season.

On March 17, Vinicius Jr’s double inflicted a 2-1 defeat on 10-man City, who lost captain Bernardo Silva to a red card after just 20 minutes at the Etihad Stadium.

Most of the damage was already done in the first leg of the last-16 clash at the Santiago Bernabeu, thanks to Federico Valverde’s hat-trick which secured a 3-0 win.

Guardiola bemoaned the chance to truly test the 15-time European champions due to Silva’s dismissal for handling Vinicius’ shot on the goal line.

Despite the scoreline, with City’s goal in the second leg coming from Erling Haaland, the tie was far more evenly contested than Real’s 6-3 aggregate victory when the sides met last season.

City have embarked on a major rebuild over the past three transfer windows, with Silva one of the few remaining key figures from a squad that won four consecutive English Premier League titles under Guardiola from 2021 to 2024.

Guardiola’s men have an immediate chance to bounce back when they face Arsenal in the League Cup final on March 22. But they trail the Gunners by nine points in the Premier League title race with a game in hand, and face Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals in April.

“Still we are not complete. Still there are things in certain moments (where) we need to be more clinical, but my feeling is it will be a question of time,” said Guardiola, who has won 15 major trophies during his decade in charge.

“We are not a complete team, that is a reality. I’ve been in a team in Manchester City where we were a team in all aspects. Still we are not, but we have a final on Sunday, FA Cup against Liverpool and the Premier League is still tight.

“We need to finish the Premier League strong, prepare good decisions for the summer and next season we will be back in the Champions League.”

Guardiola did lead City to Champions League glory in 2022-23, but just one European crown in 10 years is the one slight blemish on his record since arriving in Manchester.

However, he said he wants City to aspire to the demands of Real. Anything other than winning the competition is deemed a failure by the Spanish giants.

“I would love this club to be like Madrid where if you don’t win the Champions League, it is a failure. That is pressure,” the Spaniard added.

“(At) City, it is not the expectation. In time maybe we will get that.”

In another match, Sporting Lisbon made an impressive comeback to hammer Norwegian giant-killers Bodo/Glimt 5-0 and reach the quarter-finals 5-3 on aggregate.

After a 3-0 first-leg defeat north of the Arctic Circle, Sporting produced a ruthless display in Portugal to book a spot in the last eight for the first time since the 1982-83 season.

Bodo/Glimt have drawn admirers across the world for their superb performances in this season’s Champions League but once Goncalo Inacio opened the scoring, the Portuguese champions never looked back.

Pedro Goncalves and Luis Suarez netted to force extra time and Maximiliano Araujo scored in the 92nd minute to put Sporting ahead for the first time in the tie, before Rafael Nel smashed home a fifth late on.

“We had the right intensity and energy, we did what we didn’t do there,” forward Francisco Trincao told Sport TV. “We had a different energy, a different kind of joy, and we played a historic game.

“Everyone believed, the fans also made us feel that energy, and during the game, as time went on, we realised we were capable and we carried that through to the end.” AFP