Manchester City suffered a serious defeat in Champions League at the Etihad Stadium, 0-2 against Bayer Leverkusen, with goals by Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrik Schick. City manager Pep Guardiola took full responsibility for the defeat (second in a row after falling in the Premier League over weekend, where he did something he truly regretted later).
Guardiola made significant changes in the starting line-up compared to last weekend's match in Premier League, up to ten changes, and it did not work. "I have to accept it that maybe it's a lot", the manager said to TNT Sports, but explained that he did it thinking about his players.
Guardiola wanted to involve everyone and give their players a rest
"I always had the belief of the long season and everyone had to be involved but maybe it was too much. They played not to make mistakes instead of doing what we had to do", adding that "maybe with the players who played regularly lately, maybe we would have had confidence".
"I always like to be too nice and involve everyone because I have the feeling after the international break there are games every three or four days hopefully and there is no human being can sustain that."
It was the first defeat for Manchester City in Champions League (three wins and one draw, 10 points, and 16 points are usually enough to finish in the top 8 of the competition and avoid a play-off round), but City has a tough match ahead at the Bernabéu against Real Madrid on December 10.