Pep Guardiola named 4 teams that may win the Champions League after Manchester City’s deflating exit.
The struggling Premier League champions were blown away by Real Madrid within the Champions League play-offs, losing 3-1 on the Bernabeu on Wednesday night and 6-3 on aggregate across the 2 legs.
Man City had hope travelling to the Spanish capital despite losing 3-2 on the Etihad Stadium but Kylian Mbappe ended any talk of a comeback with a sensational hat-trick.
His first goal got here inside five minutes as he latched onto a hopeful long ball which must have been handled by the Manchester City defence before lobbing Ederson with a fragile finish.
Mbappe showed his brilliance by wrong-footed Josko Gvardiol and beating Ederson along with his second before completing his twenty first skilled hat-trick after half-time.
Man City scored a consolation goal in injury-time but this was still a humbling night for a team who won the Champions League lower than two years ago.
Real Madrid flattered to deceive throughout the Champions League group phase and haven’t been at their scintillating best in La Liga, but this victory will persuade many who the European trophy will likely be staying on the Bernabeu.
Speaking after Manchester City’s European exit, Guardiola insisted Madrid were worthy ‘favourites’ within the Champions League but named three teams that would run Carlo Ancelotti’s side close.
‘In fact Madrid are a contender, definitely,’ Guardiola said. ‘But there are other good teams around. It is going to be an interesting Champions League season.
‘Madrid are at all times favourites for this trophy. There are other teams who’re having a superb season but Madrid are at all times favourites.
‘But there are other teams which are playing thoroughly. Liverpool are having a very good season up until now, Barcelona are amazing, Paris Saint-Germain, with my friend Luis [Enrique] in charge, are on the march.
‘But obviously, Madrid are favourites.’
Discussing his team’s Champions League exit, Guardiola added: ‘The very best team won. They deserved it.
‘This season we haven’t been so good – I felt that, within the previous seasons, we were higher than Madrid, but this time not so.
‘On this competition, quality at all times counts. This season Madrid are able to long [spells of] possession; they were dynamic, they’re fast after they run they usually pressed well.
‘What you will have to do is accept it and move on. Nothing is everlasting. It was hard to bring the 3-2 [first-leg defeat] here but now we’ve got to learn from this and accept that there are one other, I don’t know… 30 or 40 games to return [this season].
‘Now we have to attempt to win the FA Cup, we’ve got to try to complete in the highest 4 within the league and we’ve got to attempt to be back again on this competition next season.
‘I actually have little or no to reproach my squad for when it comes to how they’ve played within the Champions League through the years. Once we were eliminated by Madrid up to now, I felt we were very close.
‘We reached semi-finals and finals. Tonight, when a team is healthier sportingly than you, you will have to simply accept it and congratulate them.’
Meanwhile, Ancelotti said his Real Madrid team produced a ‘complete performance’ to knock Man City out with ease and progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
‘This has been the whole performance – attack, defence, with the ball and without the ball, we showed such high levels of quality,’ he said. ‘We created so many goal probabilities. Almost the proper night.’
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