Pep Guardiola said Manchester City’s 3-3 draw at Celtic was a valuable lesson and that qualification for the Champions League knockout stage may go to the final game of Group C.
The result at a vibrant Celtic Park ended City’s 100% start to the season of 10 consecutive victories. Guardiola’s side had to draw level three times in the contest. Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic needed only three minutes to take the lead through Moussa Dembélé. Fernandinho equalised on 12 minutes before a 20th-minute Raheem Sterling own goal was answered by the same player just before the half-hour. Sixty seconds of the second half had been played when Dembélé registered his second but Nolito ensured City remained undefeated with a 55th-minute strike.
Guardiola said: “Maybe this is a good lesson for our future on the importance of starting well. They scored three goals but didn’t have many chances. We created enough to win the game. When the fourth team in the pot is Celtic you realise immediately how tough it is to qualify for the next round.
“Thinking about the performance, how they fight, how they tried until the end to win the game, it doesn’t matter about the mistakes, I was so satisfied. We scored three goals away in Europe and created three or four [more] clear chances. That’s the best way to learn. In Europe you can’t concede because they [the opposition] are a machine, they are there to punish you.”
City now have a home and away double header against Barcelona who came from behind to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1 on Wednesday night. Barça lead the group with six points, City have four, Celtic one and the German side zero – the last two sides now have their own home-and-away games with each other.
Guardiola said he believes qualification could go to the wire and with one of his former clubs up next, he added: “Against Barça it will be tough but now we analyse what we did, of course we are now second, we are going to recover well and we have time to think about Barça.”
Of the end of the winning sequence Guardiola said: “I didn’t speak about the record with my players. It was not necessary to make – I’m pretty sure they know we are not going to win all the games, not even the best team in the world can do that. It’s impossible.”
Rodgers’ side had lost 7-0 at Barcelona on the first matchday so the manager could take pride in the result. “For large parts of game we were a real threat,” the Northern Irishman said, before praising the crowd. “It’s a noise I’ve never heard before. When you come here you realise how many players around the world talk about the atmosphere here. When you have Celtic support behind you it really is like a 12th man, they really helped us to produce the performance we did.
“Collectively we were very good, how we pressed the game, tactically if [you’re] not organised against this team – like we’ve seen in the Premier League they can really hurt you. That was a big game from us. Our team and the crowd made it a very difficult night for City.”
