Pep Guardiola rues missed opportunities as Manchester City exit Champions League

City led 5-3 after the first leg of the tie at the Etihad Stadium but blew their advantage at the Stade Louis II on Wednesday.

The Blues went two goals down in a woeful first half, but Leroy Sane clawed one back in the 71st minute that would have seen them win on aggregate. But Tiemoue Bakayoko's 77th minute header from a free-kick saw City dumped out of the competition on away goals, with the overall scores tied at 6-6.

Speaking to BT Sports after the match, Guardiola said: "We played exceptional second half but we forgot to do that in the first. We wanted to defend aggressively. We were better in the second but it wasn't enough.

"The second half we had the chances and we didn't take them and that is why we are out. And set-pieces are so important at this level. Barcelona and Real Madrid scored from them last week. We were not there and we were not there in the first 45 minutes.

Though Guardiola was disappointed in the result, he defended his team, who he said were inexperienced at that level of competition.

He said: "Normally we play to a good level but here we didn't. We will learn. The team does not have a lot of experience.

"We will improve but this competition is so demanding. Sometimes we have to be special and be lucky. We were not

In an honest post-match interview, defender John Stones also expressed disappointment.

"[We were] Very sloppy." he admitted. "Not up to our standard in the first half. We wanted to correct that but we weren't clinical enough in both boxes. We didn't score enough and weren't defensively solid enough."

Though Stones felt the second half should have made a bigger difference to the scoreline in City's favour, he accepted they had let themselves down by failing to react effectively to set-pieces.

"The gaffer was saying before that the more and more he plays the Champions League it is about the set-pieces. Real Madrid scored from two last week and went through. We weren't solid enough."