Guardiola said while handball led to Real Madrids’ penalty, Tottenham also dumped them out of UCL last season after scoring with a hand
By Kehinde Okeowo
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has lamented that Manchester City have not been lucky in the Champions League knockout stages in the last two seasons.
The Spanish tactician made the assertion after the handball by Aymeric Laporte led to a penalty that narrowed the aggregate scoreline ahead of their return fixture against Real Madrid next week.
The 51-year-old gaffer told BT Sport after Citys’ 4-3 win over Madrid that a similar scenario occurred last season when Fernando Llorente scored with the hand for Tottenham to send his team crashing out of the Champions League.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager believe that it was Laporte’s handball that gave Real Madrid a lifeline going into the second leg in Spain.
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Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Phil Foden, and Bernardo Silva scored for Manchester City to secure the win for the Premier League giants
However, Real Madrid returned to the Santiago Bernabeu with full confidence after Karim Benzema scored a penalty in the 82nd minute to reduce Man Citys’ advantage.
“We went out of the Champions League to Tottenham when Llorente went with the hand. Today it is a hand for Laporte,” Guardiola said.
“It happens. All we can do is perform as we perform. The quality of Real Madrid is such that they can punish you.”
He, however, congratulated the LaLiga giants for their performance at the Etihad Stadium and hoped that his team can go to the Bernabeu and finish the game.
‘Congratulations to Carlo and his team as they are so good. At the same time, we saw ourselves that we can be there,” he added.
