Guardiola did allude to the City’s finishing as a source of frustration during their match with Newcastle on Saturday in which City settled for a 1-1 draw.
City led in the first half when Josko Gvardiol scored the first goal after neat play from Jack Grealish to create the goal. The tie occurred when Anthony Gordon won a penalty and converted it in the second half.
Despite the 16 shots they unleashed on the Newcastle goal with six shots on target, City’s xG in the contest was 0.87, suggesting the City player had lower quality chances.
Erling Haaland failed to add to his scoring streak in the match, while Nick Pope made a spectacular save late on to deny Bernardo Silva, and City’s streak of 14 successive Premier League matches with multiple goals ended.
A frazzled Guardiola stated to TNT Sports, “We made bad decisions at the last minute to make it 2-0. It’s always difficult here with physicality, with the way they defend, they defend so deep.”
Guardiola stated, “We had chances,” and “Nick Pope was brilliant, so [we’ll] take a point.”
Guardiola continued, “When we score we play better, we make a mistake and after [that] they play better and after we take the game again and had chances to win it.”
Guardiola stated against Newcastle “they had moments in the first ten minutes of the match but in generality we played really good.”
Guardiola praised his midfielders for playing well in the match. Internation and injury to Rodri’s knee at the end of the season necessitated an adjustment.
Guardiola noted, “[Mateo Kovacic] was brilliant, [Rico Lewis too], and [Bernardo] played there, really good.”
Also, City will be back into European action as City travels Slovakia to play Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday.
