Guardiola praises Manchester City despite draw in Champions League debut
Coach says he liked the team’s performance, even though they were unable to score against Inter Milan
Inter Milan managed to hold off Manchester City in the 2023 Champions League final and, unlike that decision, did not concede a goal against Pep Guardiola’s powerful attack. After the game, the English team’s manager said he liked his team’s attacking output, praising them despite the 0-0 draw in their debut in the continental competition
– We played well. The first half was difficult, but I’m happy with the team’s performance. We can’t expect to have an easy game against defensive masters like Inter Milan. We had clear chances in the first and second half. But they’re a very strong team. It’s difficult against them, we put a lot of pressure on them, we won a lot of duels. I liked it, I liked the team, but not the result – Guardiola told “TNT Sports”.
On the other side, Simone Inzaghi was also very pleased with what he saw from Inter Milan in their visit to City. The coach said that the players’ unity around the game plan was important and saw the debut as a good sign for the Champions League campaign, after an elimination in the round of 16 last season.
– This game comes against a team that dominated the league last year but left something behind in the Champions League. We wanted to win. Inter must play to win and today we showed that we can play against strong teams. I was impressed by our attitude. We are all happy, we enjoyed playing against a very strong team. We could have won, but there was the right courage and the right spirit of sacrifice – commented Inzaghi.
Manchester City’s next Champions League games will be against Slovan Bratislava (W), Sparta Prague (C), Sporting (W), Feyenoord (W), Juventus (W), PSG (W) and Brugge (W). Inter Milan will face Red Star (W), Young Boys (W), Arsenal (W), RB Leipzig (W), Bayer Leverkusen (W), Sparta Prague (W) and Monaco (W).