Beijing time on December 12, the Champions League is in full swing, Manchester City in the sixth round of the duel 0-2 defeat Juventus. After the match, Manchester City core player Gündoğan interviewed directly and analyzed the game deeply.
Gündoğan was downbeat in the face of the defeat: "It's hard for me to let go of this loss. We had the chance to break down the Juve defense, but every confrontation in the game put us under pressure. I think we were too cautious in some moments, which complicated the game and made us miss the best passes. It was this kind of mistakes that cost us the ball and gave our opponents the chance to counterattack."
Gündoğan also pointed out his team's shortcomings in terms of ball control: "Manchester City has always been dominated by possession, and we strive to keep the ball advantage. But today, we obviously didn't do that. If you can't contribute to the team, at least you shouldn't give up the ball so easily. But the reality is that we did not do this."
Talking about the team's confidence issues, Gündoğan sees it as a mental challenge: "You can see that once we slip up, we lose our rhythm quickly. Juventus, on the other hand, were able to break our rhythm easily, even without too much effort. We must understand that simple things are often the most effective. We need to regain our confidence through hard work and small details in the game. Unfortunately, we are always doing the wrong things."
Gündoğan admitted that the team knows what the problem is, but the key is to find a solution: "We know exactly what the problem is. Looking back at the game, we actually played well and created chances, but we just couldn't capitalize on them. At a high level of play, once you give the other team a chance, it's very difficult to turn the game around. We know what the problem is, we just need to find that 'switch' that can turn things around. Even though we didn't get the results we wanted, we didn't feel bad. As long as we can't find that 'switch', the game will be incredibly tough."
Finally, Gündoğan emphasized the need for every player to reflect on themselves and contribute more to the team: "The only thing we can do now is to reflect on ourselves and try to do better. We need to think about how we can make more personal sacrifices for the team. Only then can we get back on track and get back to winning."
