Ilkay Gundogan has questioned Manchester City’s credentials as a European superpower after their Champions League defeat at Tottenham.
The Germany midfielder was scathingly blunt about the team’s shortcomings after Heung-Min Son’s goal condemned them to defeat in the quarter-final first leg.
City have a chance to put it right in next week’s second leg but they were poor on the night, although manager Pep Guardiola refused to criticise his team afterwards.
Gundogan was not so shy, telling Sky Deutschland “We have made the wrong decisions” and adding “We want to do something special in such games, but sometimes less is more.”
City have frozen in big European games in the three seasons of Pep Guardiola’s reign, throwing away a 5-3 lead over Monaco in a nervy second leg display, and then getting blitzed by Liverpool in the opening half-hour at Anfield last season.
Gundogan pointed at Sergio Aguero’s first half penalty miss as a key moment.
He was not blaming the Argentina striker’s failure from the spot, but rather the team’s reaction to it, as they allowed Spurs to dominate for long spells.
“Such negative events always throw us back too much, and if we had made it, we would have taken Tottenham apart,” he said.
“So we take ourselves a little bit out of the game. That must not happen to a big team and that's why we're not yet.”
Gundogan also said that City were “not brave enough in the game structure”, and that they made “many simple mistakes”.
And he claimed that such problems were down to big-match anxiety, despite City being used to controlling games and presenting an exterior of utter calm in the last 18 months.
“I have the feeling that in important games our nerves flutter,” said Gundogan.
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