Premier League leaders Manchester City recently dealt with a shock 1-2 defeat against Marco Bielsa’s Leeds United. While it does the Citizens no good ahead of their Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Borussia Dortmund, Spanish winger Ferran Torres has come out and said that the loss won’t disturb their focus for the upcoming matches.
The former Valencia winger is optimistic that Pep Guardiola’s men will shake this defeat off and come out all guns blazing against the Germans in the crucial tie.
Torres had a decent outing against Leeds as he scored the equaliser in the second half but it remained only as a consolation for the Citizens. The youngster feels that Manchester City should not think about the defeat and must concentrate on Dortmund.
“We are obviously sad for the result but the good thing is we are still on top of the table, close to our objective. Now we just turn the page and focus on the Champions League game against Dortmund because it doesn’t stop. We want to be in the semi-finals of the Champions League. We know that Bielsa’s teams run a lot and are difficult teams to beat, and when they were down to 10 men they stayed back and made it difficult for us. We created a lot of chances but we couldn’t score them and win the game.”
the 21-year-old said.
Marcelo Bielsa’s men were constantly threatening Manchester City from the start of the match, but it was only at the 42nd mark they managed to take the lead. Stuart Dallas came up with a rifling shot from the edge of the box, and it went in after hitting the post. However, things went south for ‘The Whites’ as Liam Cooper was sent off for his strong tackle on Gabriel Jesus.
With a man down, it looked like only a matter of time before City would take the lead. But despite taking as many as 29 shots Guardiola’s men simply missed their shooting boots. Torres pulled one back at the 76th minute restoring some hope but then they failed to find the winner whereas miraculously Dallas found the net again right at the dying minutes of the game.
This loss will definitely come as a wake-up call for Pep Guardiola and his men ahead of a very crucial fixture against Dortmund, and they will hope not to repeat the same mistakes. City will start the fixture with a 2-1 lead and will look to impose themselves on the Germans and progress through to the semi-finals with flying colours.
