Finally, Guardiola breaks silence on De Bruyne and Haaland after hopes of another treble hit a halt

De Bruyne and Haaland were both substituted during the tense encounter. Now, Guardiola has explained why both players were replaced before losing to Madrid on penalties.

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Guardiola guided City to Champions League glory last term as part of a historic treble. The Citizens have however crashed out in the semi-finals to the La Liga giants.

Rodrygo opened the scoring for the La Liga giants but De Bruyne forced extra-time and a shootout after he equalised for City in the 76th minute of the match.

City’s arguably most important attacking players, De Bruyne and Haaland were surprisingly subbed off before the game went to penalties

Haaland was replaced by Julian Alvarez in the 91st minute while De Bruyne came off for Mateo Kovacic eight minutes before the shootout.

Finally, Guardiola has revealed why both star men were substituted and claims that they both requested for a rest.

‘Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne asked me to go out,’ Guardiola said in his post-match press conference.

‘They could not continue. In the game they were amazing. I didn’t plan to make a lot of substitutions but they asked me to go out because they could not continue.’

Meanwhile, Guardiola has appeared to aim a sly dig at Real Madrid for defending so deeply.

‘I would prefer to win, first of all,’ Guardiola added. ‘Congrats to Real Madrid. They defended so deep. We did everything. I have no regrets. We played expectational in all departments and unfortunately we could not win. That’s what it is.