Steve McManaman has labelled as ‘naive’ after the Premier League champions conceded three goals in their first-leg victory over in the semi-finals.
Despite winning 4-3 at the Etihad on Tuesday night, ’s side were disappointed that they did not secure a bigger lead heading to the Bernabeu next week.
City were two goals ahead on three different occasions during their first-leg tie against Real, but lapses in concentration allowed the Spanish team to pull the deficit back to one thanks to goals from Karim Benzema (2) and Vinicius Junior.
McManaman, the former City midfielder, believes City were not streetwise enough and thinks they could rue not finishing off the tie at home.
Speaking on BT Sport, he said: ‘You never accuse City of being naive but they were, at times, today. When they were 2-0 up, 3-1 and 4-2 up, they let Madrid back in the game.
‘I don’t know what it was, whether they were just overly confident because they were so far ahead, so superior and as soon they went two goals ahead they started to drop deep.
‘You think how has this happened. They’ve given Madrid a slimmer of hope and when they go back there with the fans it’s a different scenario to tonight.’
In Madrid, City will hope for a similar start to the one they got in Manchester. Ahead after just two minutes with a goal from Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus made it two nine minutes later before Benzema connected with a cross to claw Real back to 2-1 heading into the break.
At the beginning of the second-half, City came out of the traps quick and re-established their two-goal lead after Phil Foden found the net.
However, only two minutes later, Junior got Real back into the match after running with the ball a long distance before finishing past Ederson.
Later Bernardo Silva got City’s fourth. Yet a handball in the box by Aymeric Laporte gifted Real a cheap penalty which Benzema duly converted to finish the scoring at 4-3.
While both sides will be frustrated with the goals they conceded, for City the upset will be deeper considering they were at home and did not let in a goal in the last round against Atletico Madrid.
Asked about his side’s defending after the match, Guardiola described his players as being ‘nervous’.
, .
,  and .
