There’s no much for a manager to say after his side beats another 7-0 on the day, and 10-2 on aggregate.
So don’t judge Pep Guardiola too harshly for his words following Manchester City’s Tuesday demolition of Schalke in the UEFA Champions League.
[ RECAP: Man City 7-0 (10-2 agg.) Schalke ]
“It was a clear result,” Guardiola said. “We are happy to get to the quarter-finals. We didn’t start that well, we were a bit scared to play. But after it went 1-0, we relaxed and decided to play and be aggressive.”
Sergio Aguero scored twice for Pep’s men, with Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Gabriel Jesus, and Bernardo Silva also finding the back of the net.
With Danilo on his back line and both Foden and Fabian Delph coming off the bench to get some minutes, it all went according to plan for Guardiola.
“We have a lot of injured players so we want to continue this run and get those players back fit,” he said. “Everyone has to compete with each other to play. They all want to play. Everybody tried to play, be bold and keep going.”
City can hang with anyone, and shut down Schalke despite the absence of Fernandinho, Vincent Kompany, and John Stones. Oh, and Kevin De Bruyne did not play either. And Riyad Mahrez was an unused sub.
So yeah, pretty much full strength (Shoulder shrug emoji).