Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted that he was frustrated that his side failed to implement their game plan during Saturday’s defeat to Arsenal, reports dailystar.co.uk.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as the Sky Blues were left red-faced at Wembley and dumped out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage.
Victory for Arsenal meant Mikel Arteta’s side have now beaten Liverpool and City in the same week. But Guardiola admits that after seeing the Gunners pull of their first shock result, he put a system in place to stop them doing the same against themselves.
However, if anything the switch in tactics blew up in their face – much to Guardiola’s frustration.
The Spaniard told BT Sport: “We didn’t play good. The only regret is not to lose the game – that can happen – but it is that we did not play the first half like we play the second. We did not play good and on a day when you had to, we did not.
“We started low and without the way you have to play. We are always ready many times but today we were not.
“I knew they play five at the back and with high pressing. They defended well. It happened against Liverpool too so we knew it. But we were not good. We have to play good to go through.
“Now we have two weeks so we want to play the final [of the Champions League]. We want to be in rhythm. It is the last opportunity we have to go through [to win another trophy].”
He was also critical of the performance in separate interview, telling MOTD: ”We didn’t make a good performance, we were not ready enough. If you don’t play for 90mins in a semi-final this can happen. We didn’t play good, we are human beings. The opponent played good, sometimes it happens.
“The only regret is that we didn’t play the first half like we played the second one. We had to change the setup but we couldn’t do it.”
