Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, has acknowledged that they are facing their final opportunity to avoid a surprising exit from the current UEFA Champions League campaign.
Despite taking a two-goal lead, the Premier League champions suffered a 4-2 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.
Having previously won the tournament in 2023, City are at risk of an embarrassing elimination from the competition.
In order to advance to the playoff round, Guardiola’s team must secure a victory against Club Brugge at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday. Failing to achieve a win will result in City being knocked out of the competition.
“We have a last chance against Brugge and if we don’t go through it’s because we don’t deserve it,” Guardiola told reporters.
“We have to recover against Chelsea in our next game and just move forward.
“Tonight, they [PSG] were better. Congratulate PSG and accept it. The law of football is like that — how intense and aggressive they were in key positions. You have to recover players and do it better.
“Their players suffered and they were better. They were better in the duels and we found our moment with 0-2 for the goal, but the first half they had two clear chances.”
This is the ninth time City are surrendering a winning position this season. And the defeat was their third successive away loss in the Champions League.
