Pep Guardiola admitted that Manchester City are in need of a rebuild after Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick helped Real Madrid secure a 6-3 aggregate victory in the Champions League last 16.
Mbappe’s treble guided Madrid to a 3-1 second-leg win on Wednesday, but City’s fate was already sealed after conceding two late goals in a 3-2 home defeat last week. It marks the third time in four seasons that Madrid have eliminated City from the competition and the first time since Guardiola’s arrival in 2016 that the English champions have failed to reach the quarter-finals.
City barely made it through the league phase, finishing 22nd in the 36-team table. Guardiola conceded Madrid were the superior side.
“The better team won,” he told Spanish broadcaster Movistar. “We have had a bad year in the competition. If you finish 22nd, it is because we haven’t been right. It has been our worst year.”
City’s struggles have been compounded by injuries, with Erling Haaland left on the bench at the Santiago Bernabeu due to a knee issue and John Stones forced off early in the game. Their only goal on the night came from January signings Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez, with the latter tapping in after Marmoush’s free-kick hit the crossbar.
Guardiola insisted that a transition is already underway, pointing to the club’s £170 million ($214 million) investment in Marmoush, Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, and Vitor Reis in the winter transfer window.
“It is normal. Nothing lasts forever and in the group there are players that have marked an era,” added Guardiola. We cannot deny what this group of players have done, winning six Premier Leagues in seven years given what that competition is.
“In Europe always getting to the quarter-finals, semi-finals, final. It says a lot about what we have done.” and finals in Europe.”
Madrid have won the Champions League every time they have eliminated City in the past four years, and Guardiola acknowledged that Carlo Ancelotti’s current squad is the strongest he has faced.
