Manchester City have learnt the teachings of their earlier Champions League failures and their new-found defensive stability has been the important thing to their run to the ultimate, midfielder Ilkay Gundogan mentioned forward of Saturday’s showdown with Chelsea.
City’s shock defeat in final season’s quarter-finals, to Olympique Lyonnaise, was a loss which prompted some soul-searching of their camp and Gundogan mentioned it took time to recover from.
“For me personally, it took some time to be sincere as a result of it was an enormous disappointment and one thing possibly we didn’t anticipate, to lose that recreation, we felt fairly good, we felt assured and clearly if you really feel like that and also you lose it then, you might be pissed off, you might be unhappy, you is likely to be a bit of bit indignant,” he said.
That 3-1 defeat, in a one-legged game in Lisbon, was the latest in a series of exits from the Champions League in which City’s defending let them down but Gundogan said that this year’s side is much tighter at the back.
“This year a couple of crucial things changed, I remembered before, against Monaco we conceded three goals at home, same against Tottenham and then Lyon.
“This year we are so stable at the back which helped us to win even more. We’re strong, stable, this is so important in these crucial moments in the big games. Defend well, not to concede, it’s a big advantage,” he mentioned.
But Gundogan, who was on the dropping aspect within the 2013 Champions League closing, regardless of scoring a penalty for Borussia Dortmund in a 2-1 loss to Bayern Munich at Wembley, says Chelsea have learnt comparable classes beneath Thomas Tuchel.
“They appear very steady on the again, concede few targets, possibly on Saturday it’s about who’s in a position to do higher with a group that may defend on a excessive stage,” he said.
But the midfielder does not expect any major change in approach from Guardiola.
“Everything has worked so well during the season, I just feel like we have the right dynamics in the group. Everything is quite set. That’s why I feel we are prepared for it. It is just about repeating what we have done,” he mentioned.
“It’s a closing, everybody offers with the stress in a different way over enjoying that large recreation. What I attempt to do is to maintain up the degrees as excessive as doable, attempt to get everybody working 100% on each single coaching session, to not depart 1% out.”
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