Pep Guardiola admitted that defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday was painful but says his team needed to lose a game and that it will be good for his players.
A much-changed City side tasted their first defeat of the season in Ukraine as Shakhtar booked their spot in the last 16.
However, Pep was not too disappointed after the match and explained why defeat might actually help his side get even better.
"It hurts. It is never nice to lose a game. But we have said many times we cannot win all the time, we are going to lose games. We needed to lose a game,” he said.
"It will be good for the club, for all of us and the media. People say things when you win a lot and you can forget that now.
“We saw many good things but we made mistakes and we are going to improve on that. Football is how you recover in the good moments and bad moments to stay stable."
Source | The Independent
The match was fairly meaningless for City, with top spot already secured, and focus can now turn to Sunday’s Manchester derby against United at Old Trafford.