“I Saw Only One Team” – Rodri Takes Subtle Jab at Real Madrid After Manchester City’s Tough Loss on Penalties

Manchester City’s hopes of a second consecutive treble have come crashing down. The English champions were bested by Real Madrid on penalty shootouts. However, the result didn’t reveal the entire tale. Pep Guardiola’s side were utterly dominant and enjoyed a staggering 68% of the possession. They even had 9 shots on target, thrice as much as what Madrid achieved. But, despite their bravery, the Sky Blues are out of the competition and midfield maestro Rodri finds the result hard to process. In fact, the midfielder believes his side should go through considering how they played.

In a post-match interview, Rodri said that Manchester City has nothing to regret. He added, “It’s difficult to explain. I know we have to kind of how do you say digest the loss but tomorrow have to wake up stand up because we have two more competitions to fight.” However, it’s safe to say the Spaniard didn’t enjoy Madrid’s gameplan for the night.

Rodri explained, “To be honest today I saw only one team but yeah in terms of defending, they defend and they knew how to suffer. Yeah of course we know how tough is Madrid but in my opinion, we should go through in terms of chances everything.”

While City did create the bulk of the chances, their finishing was not up to the mark. In the penalty shootout, Bernardo and Kovacic missed their attempts and it was a painful exit for the reigning champions. However, manager Pep Guardiola doesn’t regret the result one bit.

Unlike Rodri, Pep Guardiola says dominance on the pitch doesn’t matter

For Pep Guardiola, the final scoreline carries more weight than the dominance on the pitch. In the post-match presser, he said, “I would have preferred to have won but congratulations to Real Madrid. We did everything so I have absolutely no regret about anything we have done.” It seems Guardiola understood Real Madrid’s game plan all along. The Los Blancos took the lead in the 12th minute through a Rodrygo strike. Hence, the team opted for a conservative approach and relied on counterattacks. This seems to be what irked Rodri.

However, not all is lost for Manchester City. Shock losses for Liverpool and Arsenal mean the Sky Blues are top of the League table. Hence, there is still the possibility of winning an unprecedented 4th Premier League. Considering how they were not favorites a few weeks ago, Pep Guardiola & team will be more than happy to end the season with the League title.