First Nathan Redmond, now this.
Pep Guardiola certainly doesn’t wait around to dish out praise after games and he was full of admiration for Bristol City after his Manchester City side required a late Sergio Aguero winner to claim victory over the Championship outfit in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday night.
Bristol City boss Lee Johnson revealed that Guardiola had told him that his team had performed better against the high-flying Premier League leaders than the vast majority of their top-flight opposition this term.
“Pep Guardiola said to me that we played better than most of the Premier League teams that come to Man City,” Johnson said. “We will take an awful lot from it and learn a lot. It is not over. It will be an interesting game at Ashton Gate.”
The visitors took a shock lead thanks to a Bobby Reid penalty just before half-time before the in-form Kevin De Bruyne levelled things up ten minutes after the break.
And while Aguero’s decider at the death undeniably made Bristol City’s task all the more difficult for the return leg, the underdogs’ away goal could well prove pivotal.
“The away goal was very important,” Johnson insisted. “We tried to score and certainly didn’t park the bus. The lads have to go home and think we can kick on form this performance.”
