Pep Guardiola said he completely disagreed with Ilkay Gundogan's verdict on Manchester City's defeat at Tottenham.
After a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, the German midfielder slammed the collective performance as he criticised too many errors, an inability to react after Sergio Aguero's missed penalty and not being brave enough. "That must not happen to a big team and that's why we're not yet," he added.
Having reviewed the game on Thursday, Guardiola spent large chunks of his press conference ahead of the Crystal Palace game defending his approach and the display at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Asked about Gundogan's comments, the City boss did not accept that they applied to this game.
“I don’t agree with him. Absolutely not," he said. "There are games when we concede a goal and we are not there but in this case we conceded a goal and nothing happened. Especially in the second half it was under control.
"We didn’t concede many shots on target and we were there many times - even if we didn’t create too much. After we conceded a goal, In other games, that is true. It was completely different against Schalke when we were 1-0 up and then we conceded two.
"The game at Spurs was much better than Schalke. The difference was Leroy put the ball in the corner from 50 yards and against Spurs we missed a penalty. Schalke was a far more dangerous situation because we were 10 against 11 and losing 2-1, but we reacted well in both situations.
"Sergio [Aguero] was strong and the team was stable except for one duel from Nico in the corner and after Harry Kane had a shot on target. We defended the set-pieces when they are so strong and after when we conceded a goal there were 10 minutes left and nothing happened.
"We were there and in control. In that situation. Of course we want to do well, especially in the Champions League but in that case in this specific game I don’t think I agree."
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