Pep Guardiola regretted not being able to hold on to a 2-0 lead after Manchester City lost 4-2 to Paris Saint-Germain tonight, putting their Champions League hopes in jeopardy.
City now need to beat Club Brugge at the Etihad next week to have any chance of making the play-offs after a sobering night in the French capital.
Goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland looked to have put City in control, but PSG, who started the evening in danger, fought back.
Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola got PSG level before late efforts from Joao Neves and Goncalo Ramos completed a remarkable comeback.
Manchester City fell to the Champions League elimination zone after losing to PSG
pic.twitter.com/sgLURkV5rB
— Football (@footballontnt) on TNT Sports January 22, 2025
“This game was not at all what we wanted, but I give PSG a lot of credit,” Guardiola told TNT Sports. They are a special team. But if we can manage it will be 2-0… But they scored right away.
“Then it would have been better if we had been able to keep it like this with a little bit of the ball, but we couldn’t.
“To defend the result you have to keep the ball and we didn’t do that. That was difficult because they had more and attacked better.
“I accept defeat because the best team won.”
There’s one last chance – Pep
Leaving the competition at this early stage would be a bitter blow for City after what has been a disappointing season, but Guardiola has now admitted it is possible.
He added: “We had one last chance against Club Brugge at home. If we win, hopefully we will qualify.
“If we don’t win, we don’t deserve it. Sporting was difficult, PSG was difficult, Juventus was difficult, and all the away games we played were difficult. This is reality. We didn’t score enough points. “The last game against Brugge will decide what we do.”
