Manchester City: Pep Guardiola shoots down Ilkay Gundogan's verdict on Tottenham defeat

Pep Guardiola has shot down Ilkay Gundogan’s assessment that Manchester City lost to Tottenham Hotspur due to being “nervous”.

Gundogan spoke frankly after City’s 1-0 defeat in Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg, claiming he and his team-mates were simply “not brave enough”.

Son Heung-Min’s late goal, scored after Sergio Aguero had missed a first-half penalty, gave Tottenham an advantage ahead of Wednesday’s return leg at the Etihad.

““I have the feeling that we are nervous in important Champions League games,” Gundogan said. “We have always made the wrong decisions.

“In such games, we always want to do something special because it means Champions League semi-finals. Sometimes less is more.”

Guardiola took a different view on the night, insisting that his side had played well, and he said on Friday that his opinion had not changed after re-watching the game.

And when Gundogan’s remarks were put to him directly, ahead of this weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace, the City manager took exception with them.

“I’m not agreeing with any of it. Absolutely not,” Guardiola said.

“There are games when we concede a goal and we are not there but in this case we conceded a goal and nothing happened.

“Especially in the second half it was under control. We didn’t concede many shots on target and we were there many times – even if we didn’t create too much.”

Guardiola compared City’s performance on Wednesday favourably with their 3-2 win away from home at Schalke in the previous round, won by a late Leroy Sané free-kick.

“The difference was Leroy put the ball in the [top] corner from 50 yards [against Schalke] and against Spurs we missed a penalty.

“Schalke was a far more dangerous situation because we were 10 against 11 and losing 2-1, but we reacted well in both situations.

“[Against Tottenham] Sergio was strong and the team was stable except for one duel from Nico [Otamendi] in the corner and after Harry Kane had a shot on target.

“We defended the set-pieces when they are so strong and after when we conceded a goal there were 10 minutes left and nothing happened.

“We were there and in control in that situation. Of course we want to do well, especially in the Champions League but in that case in this specific game I don’t think I agree.”

The defeat was City’s second in 24 matches. Including the EFL Cup final penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea, Guardiola’s side won all of the other 22.

The defending Premier League champions will therefore be confident of returning to winning ways on Sunday, though the trip to Selhurst Park could cause problems for their title charge.

Palace inflicted City’s only home league defeat of the season back in December, winning 3-2 at the Etihad, and halted City’s record 17-game winning run last season with a 0-0 draw.

“Selhurst Park is always difficult,” Guardiola said. “Not just because of the stadium itself but for the quality of the players they have in all departments.

“They are well organised and have quality players to go one-against-one, one-against-two, one-against-three. There are six games left we know what we are playing for and we are going to see [what happens].”

City can briefly return to the top of the table by beating Palace on Sunday, though will be knocked back into second place if Liverpool beat Chelsea in the later kick-off.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Bernardo Silva, who missed Wednesday’s defeat at Tottenham with respective hamstring and muscle injuries, will face late fitness tests before Sunday.