The Premier League side went through to the final four of the competition with a 1-0 aggregate win courtesy of De Bruyne’s goal in the first leg at Etihad Stadium last week.
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Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has claimed his team is in “big trouble” after Kyle Walker and Kevin de Bruyne suffered injuries during the fractious 0-0 draw against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. The Premier League side went through to the final four of the competition with a 1-0 aggregate win courtesy of De Bruyne’s goal in the first leg at Etihad Stadium last week. Man City will face Real Madrid in the semi-final stage later this month.
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Enjoy the best of the action from our #UCL quarter-final second leg away to Atletico Madrid! ?
⬇️ HIGHLIGHTS ⬇️
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 13, 2022
De Bruyne was the first to be substituted for City, and TV pictures showed a physio putting ice on his ankle on the bench, with the playmaker in discussion with his teammates.
Then, Walker went to clear a ball only to go down under pressure, appearing to twist his ankle slightly. He received treatment before trying to continue but eventually went down again and was replaced by Nathan Ake.
When asked about the injuries after the match, Guardiola responded: “We are in big trouble. We played three days ago against a tough Liverpool, travel, come here and have a lot of injuries right now. I’m not sure what will happen in the next weeks but, yeah we will celebrate at home. It’s the third time in Man City history that we are in semi-finals of the Champions League. For us, it’s a big success and we are happy to be there.”
City boss also admitted that his side had to dig deep to get the better of the Spanish side over two legs. Atletico went all guns blazing and City were pushed to the back foot in the second half. But the Premier League leaders managed to maintain their defensive discipline and kept a clean sheet to go through.
“We cannot play all the time and score four or five goals. We are human beings. We arrived from a difficult game against Liverpool, first half we did well but second half we had to live without the ball. We count 180 minutes, the last 45, Atletico were better.”
Man City’s next game is the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool on April 16 and then, seven days later, they will host Brighton in the league fixture. Guardiola’ side is just one point ahead of second-placed Liverpool in the League standings and cannot afford to drop points in the upcoming games in order to be assured of the title.
Manchester City vs Liverpool: Talking points from the action-packed draw
