Guardiola salutes ´exhausted´ Man City after sealing Champions League semi-final spot

Pep Guardiola felt “exhausted” Manchester City showed they are streetwise in the Champions League as they reached the semi-finals with a 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich.

Eight days after winning the first leg 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium, the Premier League champions drew 1-1 at Allianz Arena to set up a tie against holders Real Madrid.

Erling Haaland missed a first-half penalty, but scored his 48th goal of the season after the break to put City ahead the night.

Joshua Kimmich denied City an 11th successive victory late on after a second harsh penalty award of the game – Manuel Akanji punished for what was adjudged to be handball.

City are in the hunt for a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble after advancing to a third successive European semi-final.

Guardiola, who took charge of the Premier League champions for a 400th time when he came up against his former club Bayern on Wednesday, feels their experience is standing them in good stead.

He told BT Sport: “We struggled in the first half. [Dayot] Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with [Kingsley] Coman.

“We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.

“The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one.”

Another top performance!

1-1 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/MB6xglDGif

— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 19, 2023

City face Championship side Sheffield United in an FA Cup semi-final on Saturday and Guardiola is concerned fatigue will be an issue.

He added: “We are exhausted. I don’t know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final].

“Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday, but we have to play then as [Manchester) United play in the Europa League [so play Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup on Sunday].”