Guardiola promises Man City won´t sit back in pursuit of Champions League semis

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola promised his semi-final hopefuls will not sit back against Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

City will take a slender advantage into next week’s return leg away to Dortmund after Phil Foden’s 90th-minute winner secured a 2-1 victory in Manchester on Tuesday.

Dortmund captain Marco Reus had cancelled out Kevin De Bruyne’s 19th-minute opener with six minutes remaining, before Foden restored City’s lead at the death.

City have suffered consecutive quarter-final exits in the past three seasons – eliminated by Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon – but Guardiola insisted the Premier League leaders will continue to attack against Dortmund.

Dissecting Dortmund! 

 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/MRxxn0ZVjY

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 6, 2021

“Listen, when you play a game after 26 victories in the last 27 games and they are not winning in the Bundesliga and are seven points behind the Champions League places, the pressure is on our shoulders, not them,” Guardiola told reporters.

“Everything is guaranteed for us. In this competition it’s so tough and the opponents are so good, I’ve said in the news conference. Everybody believed and our players as well that we would win. We have an incredible commitment and desire to go through. Now we fly there at 2-1.

“We know that we have to score goals because they have the quality to score goals and always they score. We will adjust a few things we could not do today. We are going to reflect in a calm way, the best way possible, the game we played and see what we can do better and we are going to go there like we have done in the last four, five, six months – going there to win the game.

“I asked the players ‘just win the game, I don’t want anything else’, we did it. Now we are going to Dortmund to absolutely not defend, we are going to adjust our high pressing, adjust our build up, control the runners and try to play 90 minutes to reach the semi-final.”

Only Real Madrid (26) and Barcelona (20) have won more Champions League matches against German sides than City (13), winning 11 of their last 12 games against such opposition in the competition.

Since their first season in the Champions League in 2011-12, no side has scored more 90th-minute goals in the competition than City (17 – level with Madrid).

FULL TIME | After all that, we’re taking a lead to Germany! 

 2-1  #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/e4BKlmsDqp

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 6, 2021

Guardiola – who refused to talk about the referees after City had a penalty overturned, while Dortmund were unfortunate to be denied a goal via Jude Bellingham – added: “I want to congratulate the players for a real Champions League match. How they stuck together. The quality of the opponent, not because we were not able to do it, how much we fought and stuck together to the end.

“We won the game, now we know each other quite well. They know us, but we know them. First Leeds, and then we will take time to see them and go there to win the game and get the result we need. Of course the victory is the best result we can do.”

As for interim Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic, he said: “The second leg is in eight days. We know that Man City plays this kind of football in every game. Their principles won’t change and therefore we will also find spaces to become dangerous again.

“We definitely believe now that we can move to the semis.”