Former Crystal Palace chairman, Simon Jordan has hit out at Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola following the Citizens’ Champions League semi-final 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Jordan said Man City lost to Real Madrid because of Guardiola’s thinking, just like they were defeated in the Champions League final last season against Chelsea due to his tactical errors and misjudgments.
Guardiola’s men seemed to be sailing towards a second consecutive Champions League final when Riyad Mahrez struck in the 73rd minute against Real Madrid to make it 1-0 and put Man City on a 5-3 aggregate score.
However, two late goals from Rodrygo in added time took the tie to extra-time before Karim Benzema’s penalty sealed a monumental comeback victory for Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And Jordan has now criticized Guardiola for not changing his philosophy during the encounter.
“(Man City) lost it last year because of tactical errors and misjudgments of how to play against Chelsea,” Jordan told talkSPORT.
“They have lost previous games with a little bit of misfortune.”
He added, “This loss against Real Madrid is probably the worst of the lot because they had it in their hand four times during the series of 180 or 190 minutes. And each time, seemingly, game management or ability to be able to overcome the obstacle had evaded them.”
“And that has to be the coach’s thinking. It’s one thing sticking to your principles, it’s one thing saying we won’t compromise because we don’t believe in compromise and we will always overcome obstacles by continuing to believe in a philosophy, there is another thing having that extra one percent of nouse.
“There’s no way with due respect to Real Madrid, that besides their livery and their 17 times in the Champions League final, that on a pound-for-pound basis, that they should have beaten Man City in these two games.”
