Guardiola defends Manchester City’s performance despite the defeat against Juventus

Pep Guardiola says he is happy with how his Manchester City team played despite suffering another defeat.

The Premier League champions suffered a 2-0 defeat to Juventus, condemning them to a lowly 22nd place in the Champions League standings.

City dominated much of the match in Turin, but suffered a counterattack in both goals.

However, Guardiola has defended his players even though it has only been one win in 10 for the Spaniard.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the match, he said: “We played well, very, very well.

“We conceded few, there was some transition, but I am very proud of these players.

“They gave everything and tried and now we live in this period and hopefully we can change the results.

“We played well”

Pep Guardiola trusts his squad despite the 2-0 defeat against Juventus…

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“I know it is difficult in the European Champions League. We played very well. Today we did very well, we didn’t lose as many balls as before, we tried, we got into positions.

“Against Italian teams, they defend so deep, so compact. Master of this type of situations. We played as we are and we missed the result, but the performance is there.

“We have two games, maybe we need a point.

“If you go to Turin, Paris, our three away games were really difficult. You have to accept it. “We will turn around, we will not forget that period, we will appreciate more what we have done in the past and what we will do in the future.”

It seems unlikely that City will now automatically qualify for the next round of the Champions League.

Instead, they will have to go through a play-off round to finish between 9th and 24th place.

If they win, they will obtain a place in the round of 16 of the competition.

But as Guardiola mentioned, they will probably need at least one more point in their games against Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge.