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Ilkay Gundogan Claims Lack of Bravery Cost Man City in UCL Defeat to Tottenham

​Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has said that his side's nervousness and lack of  bravery may have cost them against Spurs on Wednesday, as his side take a 1-0 deficit into the  second leg at the Etihad. 

Son Heung-min's 78th minute strike dealt a serious blow to City's hopes of a clean sweep of trophies, and although Hugo Lloris was required to save a contentious Sergio Aguero penalty in  the first half, City looked off the pace throughout, and their hosts were well worth the narrow victory. 

It came one year after ​City crashed out of the Champions League against ​Liverpool at this stage last season, with a damaging defeat at Anfield leaving them too much to do in the second leg, and while their situation is better this time around, Gundogan took to the press after the match to cast doubts over his side's mental strength on the big occasions.

“We were not brave enough in the game,"  he said, via ​The Express. "There were many simple mistakes.

“I have the feeling that we are nervous in important Champions League games.”

Aguero's penalty miss seemed to knock City out of sorts, with ​Tottenham going on to keep them on the ropes for much of the second half, and eventually recorded what could be an important victory. 

And Gundogan - who featured for 90 minutes - believes that they would have won comfortably, had they taken the lead early on, but did not have the resilience to bounce back.

“Negative events like that always set us back far too much," he added.

“Had we scored from the penalty we’d have taken Tottenham apart, but instead we withdrew from the game.”


Source : 90min