Kevin De Bruyne is out of Manchester City’s Champions League trip to face Celtic in Glasgow, his manager Pep Guardiola confirmed on the eve of the game.
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They roared back in spectacular fashion though last night at a rocking Celtic Park as they led three times against Pep Guardiola’s star-studded side before eventually having to settle for a draw.
City reached the semifinals under Manuel Pellegrini last season, but not for the first time, Guardiola pointed to their current shortcomings as a sign of their callowness in continental competition.
“Sometimes it happens that you go behind”.
“I’m happy with the reactions from the players, it’s not easy to score three goals away”. You saw his agility for the third goal.
“So that will be a good lesson”.
“All the teams in Europe are strong”.
“It was very tough, but hopefully now it’s brightening up a little bit”.
Shell-shocked City had yet to settle before they nearly found themselves two down.
The game started on fire, with the Hoops pressuring the ball to get it back and attack, and that plan worked after just three minutes, when Dembele put the hosts in front with a tap-in goal inside the box.
Guardiola said: “It was a fantastic game for the spectators”.
“We can analyse them and the first one was from a mis-hit shot but with the other two we could do better”.
“Here, prestigious teams in Europe find it hard to win”. “As a coach and players these are the types of occasions and games that you look forward to and we look forward to it”.
After the halftime break, Celtic came out fast and went up 3-2 after Dembele’s acrobatic attempt found the bottom left corner in the 47th minute.
“I don’t know how many the chances they had after the third goal”.
“It turns out he had us watched three times before we played them”.
But 50 years to the day the since Jock Stein’s Lisbon Lions began their journey to the 1967 European Cup, Brendan Rodgers’ Class of 2016 evoked the spirit of their glorious predecessors to produce a heroic performance which landed the first blow on City’s sheen of invincibility.
City had won their first 10 games of the season and were bidding to equal Tottenham Hotspur’s English record of 11 successive victories at the start of a campaign from 1960. It is impossible. Not even the best team in the world.
“It’s OK. It’s one point, we didn’t lose”.
Sergio Aguero, who already has two hat-tricks in the Champions League this season was unable to conjure up a significant threat and credit must be given to the Scottish Champions for keeping him at bay.
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Jonathan is ESPN FC’s Manchester City correspondent.
