Kevin De Bruyne has admitted Manchester City were far from good enough following their exit from the Champions League at the hands of Olympique Lyon.
Moussa Dembele won the game for Lyon after coming off the bench to score two goals in the closing 13 minutes of the game on Saturday, as the French side claimed a 3-1 win in their quarter-final tie at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon.
The defeat sees the Premier League side fail to advance past the quarter final stage in the last four editions with all coming under manager Pep Guardiola.
And De Bruyne, who drew City level before Dembele’s goals has claimed his side were not good enough on the night.
The Belgian told BT Sport: “It’s a different year, but the same stuff. I think the first half wasn’t good enough. I think we know that. We started slowly and we didn’t have many options. I think second half we played really well.
“We had them under pressure, we played more offensively, like we normally do, and I think we had them. We created enough second half to score enough goals but we need to learn, it’s not good enough. This team is great but we made too many mistakes. It’s what we’ve done all year.”
On the path of City, the manager claimed they were unfairly undone by the VAR as they believed Aymeric Laporte was fouled in the build up to Lyon’s second goal.
Guardiola said: “It happened many times in this competition. It is what it is, the referee and VAR decided. I don’t want to talk about the circumstances. It looks like I am complaining or finding causes. We are out. I had the feeling we were ready but we make mistakes. That’s why we are out.”
Pep Guardiola also said he had not had a word with Raheem Sterling who missed a sitter that could have seen the game go into extra time, adding that his players were sad.
“I haven’t seen him yet,” said Guardiola. “In the locker room the players were sad and now we will talk in the hotel, but it’s part of the game.
“The football in this competition, we know we can do many things, but in the boxes you have to be serious. Not concede the goals we concede especially the second one.
“Maybe one day we’re going to break this part of the quarter-finals. We are not able to do it, I was not able with these incredible, clever guys – but we’re going to try in the future.”