Haaland was substituted at the beginning of extra time due to a lackluster performance. De Bruyne, who scored the only goal for City, was replaced by Mateo Kovacic at 112 minutes.
Guardiola, the City manager, explained after the match that Haaland, De Bruyne, and Akanji asked to be substituted due to fatigue. The distraught City boss expressed that “Manu, Erling, and Kevin asked me to go out,” following their exit during the quarter-final stage.
He revealed that the players couldn’t continue. Bernardo Silva and Kovacic missed their attempts in the tense penalty shootout.
Guardiola refrained from publicly criticizing Silva, acknowledging his reliability as a player and praising his overall performance in the game. Guardiola expressed his gratitude to the players, acknowledging their high level of performance.
He also congratulated Real Madrid on their victory, stating that City did everything they could and he has no regrets about their efforts. Despite the exceptional performance, they were unable to secure a win.
