The United manager hauled off Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard at half-time and said it was only because he did not want to “destroy them” that he did not substitute them earlier.
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His appointment has brought high hopes City can achieve great things in the competition with the 45-year-old having reached the semi-final stage in the last seven seasons with either Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
“It was a fight until the end and we’re very happy to get the win”.
“It’s really good, we defended the set-pieces [well] because they are stronger and taller than us and we defended really good”.
“The performance of Paul Pogba: It was ill-disciplined”.
“I’m frustrated when we don’t have the ball”, he said.
Several United players have spoken about the need to learn from the 2-1 loss, with Mata underlining the importance of retaining focus after the first of six September matches.
Marcus Rashford had a goal disallowed in the 70th minute after his shot came off Zlatan Ibrahimovic who was offside.
“The performances are the deciding factor”.
“Honestly, I had two or three players in the first half who, if I knew what I know now, I don’t play them”, he told Sky Sports. Never do that. He did it 20 times during the game.
‘Last season we struggled a lot to beat them, both at home and away, so I have no reason to think it’s going to be easy this time, ‘ the Spaniard added. My boys felt the dimension of the game.
“The second half was completely different”.
Manchester City preserved their 100% record in the Premier League this weekend, Chelsea lost theirs and champions Leicester City fell to a second defeat in four matches. Fortunately for him, and manager Guardiola, referee Mark Clattenburg did not award a penalty.
Guardiola said then that he would accept if invited to join Mourinho for a drink after the game.
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Iheancho is the only other recognised striker at the club but Guardiola had other options with Nolito, Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Kevin de Bruyne all capable of playing in a central role.
