"We are an extraordinary team. Extraordinary. The first 15 minutes today, those at the Bernabeu... We are an extraordinary team. Congratulations to Real Madrid and all of you," stated the coach to the press, emphasizing in each chosen word, where he recalled multiple times, in his own way, the penalty and the expulsion of Bernardo Silva: "I would have liked to experience it eleven against eleven, we didn't play eleven against eleven to see how things would go. The feeling is that I loved the start and that I would have liked to play eleven against eleven. Maybe we would have lost 0-4, but we don't know."
Guardiola's journey in the Champions League with City has turned white over the years. They fell to Monaco in the round of 16 in 2017, to Liverpool in the quarter-finals in 2018, to Tottenham in the quarter-finals in 2019, to Lyon in the quarter-finals in 2020, and lost the final in 2021 against Chelsea. From there, it was either the Champions League trophy (2023) or a loss to Madrid. If we count the elimination against Madrid when he was coaching Bayern, the Whites are the team that has eliminated him the most in the Champions League: 5 times. The rest, only once.
"I would love for this club to have the standard of Madrid, where not winning the Champions League is a failure. But maybe we will get there...," he said, avoiding commenting on a possible end to his time at City, where he is under contract until 2027: "Why does everyone want to find my exit? We are not a complete team yet, we have been in the past, in all aspects, and now we are not. There are games left, we will prepare good decisions for those games, and we will return to the Champions League," he pointed out.
A few minutes earlier, Álvaro Arbeloa appeared happy before the media: "In the next defeat, doubts will arise again from the outside... But not from within. All the credit goes to the players, not me. I have players who are fantastic," he said, when asked about his superiority against Mourinho and Guardiola in consecutive ties.
The Salamanca native has won all four encounters in the clashes against the two coaches and received praise from the Catalan: "I really liked it, I got a very good impression. His performance was very good, linking up well, with a lot of quality. Very good impression, I predict a long career for him," Guardiola stated.
The Catalan's night was tough. He protested Bernardo's red card and ended up confronting Rüdiger, to whom he blew kisses from a distance after the German's clash with Donnarumma.
After two years of premature exits in the Champions League, Guardiola will now seek to regain lost ground in the Premier League against an Arsenal side that is still alive in Europe. The 'Gunners' have nine points more than City, although they have played one more game.