After watching his side held to a second successive 1-1 draw, this time in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with RB Leipzig, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola offered a novel solution to the visitors’ struggles to score more. “Maybe in the second leg I will be crazy and play with nine strikers,” he joked.
Guardiola may have appeared in a positive mood after the game in Germany – and an away draw in a European knockout game is certainly not a result to be sniffed at – but it will likely still frustrate him that his side have not turned their recent dominance into more goals. At the weekend they dropped two points in the Premier League title race after a first-half opener for City was cancelled out by a second-half equaliser by Nottingham Forest – and it was the same story at RB Leipzig.
City had been in total control in the opening 45 minutes yet only had Riyad Mahrez’s goal to show for it. “You expect us to come here and win 0-5? That is not a reality,” Guardiola told BT Sport after the game. “This is a competition that in the group stage many important teams are out. It is difficult. We are a good team and we do many, many good things. We continued to do this.
“People expect us to come here and win 4-0, I am sorry we are not able to do this.”
