Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola has vowed to keep fighting after suffering a heavy 4-1 defeat to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
Victor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick for the hosts to hand Ruben Amorim an historic win in his last home game for Sporting before taking up the Manchester United job.
The Portuguese manager passed the test against Guardiola’s men in flying colours, which will send waves of excitement to his new club supporters.
Manchester City have been suffering with injuries to key players which led Guardiola to hand a start to Jahmai Simpson-Pusey in defence after Ruben Dias, and John Stones missed out.
It was their heaviest loss since September 2020, the second time they have lost three times in a row under Guardiola.
The Spaniard has called on the players to be better while vowing to keep fighting to get the team back to their high standards.
Guardiola said, “I have to try to find an explanation but sometimes it’s just football so you have to accept it. Sport is that. Life is that. Sometimes we have bad moments but we face the reality.
“Everyone has to try to be better and we will find it. We are still alive in all competitions and we continue.
“It’s difficult to find the reasons why what is happening to us now,” he said. “In seven and a half seasons, I don’t remember three in a row.
“We’re in a dark place. Everything looks to be going the wrong way.
“The good thing is even though we lost three games we’re in good positions in the Premier League and Champions League. We’re still fighting for everything, but we need to do better. It’s just not good enough at the minute.
“We are coming back to Manchester to prepare the game against Brighton. I am not giving up. Maybe people are waiting but I am not giving up.”
Manchester City have now lost all their last three matches against Tottenham, Bournemouth, and Sporting Lisbon.
Sporting Lisbon’s hat-trick hero, Viktor Gyokeres was delighted to help score a hat-trick against Man City.
He said, “It’s always nice to score and even better to score a hat-trick, You need to raise your level when you play better opponents. I tried to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
He has now scored 23 goals in 17 matches this season for Sporting Lisbon in all competitions.
Sporting Lisbon’s coach, Ruben Amorim described the win as a landmark moment for everyone connected to the club.
He said, “I think that it was clearly a landmark, big moment for everyone, the result, and that helped with the feeling of the goodbye to the fans.
“I think everyone here deserved this moment, we were very happy here at the Jose Alvalade and to end in such a way adds a special touch. I think everyone deserved this.”
Manchester City will be hoping to bounce back from their poor form when they make a difficult trip to Brighton on Saturday in the Premier League.
Guardiola Vows To Keep Fighting After 4-1 Defeat To Sporting Lisbon is first published on The Whistler Newspaper