Pep Guardiola insists weak Man City mentality didn't cause Real Madrid collapse

Pep Guardiola insists a weak mentality from his Manchester City squad was not the reason for their late Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.

City were two goals up on aggregate in the 89th minute of Wednesday's second leg, before Rodrygo equalised on the night and reduced the aggregate score to 4-5. No sooner had City restarted, though, that Madrid forced extra time with Rodrygo again heading past a stranded Ederson 90 seconds later.

Asked on Friday whether the two quick goals were partly due to a mentality issue from City's players, Guardiola was insistent that the character of his team remained strong - and is only being questioned after fine margins went against them.

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"There is no time for mental [issues]. They scored 45 seconds later. There was no time to fall down," he said, referencing Jack Grealish's two huge chances before Rodrygo's first - one hacked off the line and the other saved by Thibaut Courtois.

"All the data and analysis, how do you control the emotion of the players? Tell me in the data how the players feel in that moment, how do you feel? Do you think they want to lose? They want to stop the cross, but it is deflected from one player, goes to Rodrygo, scores again. It’s football. What happened – it’s football. It happened and now we have to accept it.

"You know how many times we talk about that and guys you have to score goals and chances. Now people say it's lack of character. Lack of character? What happens if Jack Grealish scores those two goals? What is the character? In Atletico Madrid when [Angel] Correa shot and Eddy saves, now its character? When Correa scores it’s not character?

"When [Thibaut] Courtois