Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has acknowledged that his squad remains a work in progress following their UEFA Champions League elimination by Real Madrid for the third consecutive season.
City suffered a 2-1 defeat on Tuesday, with Vinicius Junior scoring twice against a 10-man City side after captain Bernardo Silva was sent off early for handling a goal-bound effort. Much of the damage had been done in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, where Federico Valverde netted a hat-trick to give Madrid a commanding advantage.
Guardiola said the red card limited City’s ability to fully challenge the 15-time European champions but stressed that the tie was more competitive than last season’s heavy aggregate defeat. He also reflected on City’s ongoing rebuild, noting that Silva is one of the few remaining players from the squad that won four consecutive Premier League titles between 2021 and 2024.
“Still we are not complete. There are moments where we need to be more clinical, but my feeling is it will be a question of time,” Guardiola said. “We are not a complete team, that is a reality. I’ve been in a team at Manchester City where we were complete in all aspects. Still we are not, but we have a final on Sunday, and important games ahead.”
City will have an opportunity to respond in the League Cup final against Arsenal and are also preparing for FA Cup quarter-final clashes, while trailing Arsenal by nine points in the Premier League title race.
Despite winning the Champions League in the 2022/23 season, Guardiola admitted that achieving only one European title in a decade leaves room for improvement. He expressed his desire for City to reach the standards set by Real Madrid, where anything less than Champions League success is considered a failure.
“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,” he said. “At City, it is not yet the expectation. In time, maybe we will get there.”
