Kevin De Bruyne insists Raheem Sterling should not carry the can for Manchester City's latest Champions League meltdown.
Sterling, has topped the Etihad goal charts with 31 this season, but he missed a glorious late chance to equalise in City's quarter-final defeat to Lyon on Saturday night with Pep Guardiola's men trailing 2-1.
Just 59 seconds later, City's fate was sealed when former Celtic striker Mouussa Dembele scored his second goal of the game.
De Bruyne claimed the failure of Guardiola to guide the Blues beyond the last eight for the fourth successive year was collective rather than individual.
He said: “I don’t blame Raheem. It’s football. He did so many good things so that’s the way it goes.
“We still had seven or eight minutes. Obviously then they score the third goal and then the game is over.
“It’s a little bit of a shame because we had good hopes to do well this year.
“I don’t think we are far away. At this level it’s small details and the difference is we made mistakes and they score and the chances we create we don’t score.
“That’s the minimal difference.”
City were shambolic for the first 55 minutes after Guardiola opted to go with a three-man defence.
And De Bruyne admitted that his team suffered up until the moment his manager changed his tactics.
He added: “The first half wasn’t good enough but the second half we played really well so that’s the difference.
“In the first half, we haven't played the way we usually do.
“We haven't created enough, we haven't found the chances.
“In the second half, we have played much better, we have created many chances.
“The main difference was that they had two chances in the second half - and they scored two goals.”
