City want more, says Guardiola; Klopp rues wasteful finishing

Pep Guardiola says his Manchester City “want more” as they marched into the Champions League semi-finals,  while Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp lamented their inability to convert their chances into goals against Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Phil Foden’s second-half winner at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday sealed a 2-1 away win in the quarter-final, second leg to claim a 4-2 aggregate victory and set up a semi-final clash with Paris Saint Germain.

Guardiola’s side stay on course for a historic quadruple of Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup.

They also ended their miserable run of exiting at the quarter-final stage in each of the three seasons to make the Champions League semis at the fifth time of asking under Guardiola.

“I am incredibly happy for this club, for this chairman and for the fans, everyone,” he said.

“For all of us, it was necessary to get to the semi-finals and now we want more.

“It’s time to celebrate, then prepare to face Chelsea (in the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday).

“We need three victories to be Premier League champions, so it’s important to keep going in this way.”

Guardiola also heaped praise on City’s match-winner Foden, who had also netted a 90th-minute goal in the first leg last week to seal a 2-1 home win.

“The second goal from Phil in Manchester was crucial,” said Guardiola.

“You had the feeling he is a guy who never hides and he always creates something, he scored two important goals to help us reach the semi-finals.”

City’s man-of-the-match Ilkay Gundogan said his side had showed character to come from behind.

England midfielder Jude Bellingham gave Dortmund an early lead, but a second-half Riyad Mahrez penalty and Foden’s powerful strike moved City into the last four of Europe’s top club competition for the second time.

“It means a lot to be honest, this club and this team deserve it,” Gundogan told BT Sport.

“Today once again we showed character, we didn’t play well at all in the first 15 minutes, we struggled and we weren’t brave enough and were scared to lose something. That was obvious.

“After conceding the first goal we were able to get hold of possession and create chances.

“Our target was to score the first goal of the second half and get the game back into our hands.

“That’s exactly what we did.”

Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp bemoaned Liverpool’s inability to turn dominance into goals as Real Madrid held out for a 0-0 draw at Anfield on Wednesday to progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League 3-1 on aggregate.

Mohamed Salah and Georginio Wijnaldum were guilty of wasting glorious opportunities to get Klopp’s men back into the tie as they failed to replicate a remarkable recovery from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate at the semi-final stage two years ago.

“We didn’t lose the tie tonight. We lost it definitely in Madrid but even if we drew there 0-0, we would probably still be playing because we didn’t score,” said Klopp, whose side now face a battle just to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top-four finish in the Premier League.

“It’s a little bit ourselves this year. We had games here in the Premier League where we just don’t finish the situation often enough.

“We know how often Mo Salah finished these chances with closed eyes and in this moment (he did) not.” Madrid were far from their best, but did not need to be to set up a semi-final clash with Chelsea as Los Blancos extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 14 games. “We knew we had to suffer tonight, but in the end we got what we wanted, which was to go through,” said Zidane.

Agencies