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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Kyle Newbould

Pep Guardiola's full-time message to Man City players as Riyad Mahrez identifies issue in RB Leipzig draw

Here are your Thursday evening Manchester City headlines.

Pep Guardiola speech

Pep Guardiola got his Manchester City players together on the pitch at full time at RB Leipzig to tell them to keep their heads up.

City had dominated the first half of their Champions League last-16 first leg in Germany, but only had Riyad Mahrez's goal to show for it. After the break, Leipzig hit back and deservedly took a draw from the game and the tie remains open ahead of next month's second leg at the Etihad.

ALSO READ:"We know what happened in the past" - Pep Guardiola gives cryptic verdict on Man City penalty appeal at RB Leipzig

While there may have been some frustrations from the City camp after failing to secure a first leg win, Guardiola said he was keen to impress on his side how well they played, regardless of the result.

Sharing his message to his players on the pitch, Guardiola said: "They were heads down. I said why are you heads down? Heads up, it was really good the way you played."

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Riyad Mahrez issue

Riyad Mahrez believes a lack of clinical finishing cost Manchester City the advantage in their Champions League last-16 tie with RB Leipzig.

City travelled to Germany on Wednesday evening for the first leg against Leipzig and came back with honours even at 1-1. Mahrez opened the scoring for the away side with a composed finish on 27 minutes but the Blues failed to turn dominance into goals before Josko Gvardiol rose high to head home the leveller.

Leipzig's equaliser handed them the impetus and the Bundesliga outfit wasted their own chances to take the lead, with Andre Silva and Timo Werner both failing to score. But Mahrez believes that momentum should never have come, with City not able to capitalise on their first-half dominance.

"I think we played a really good first half," Mahrez told City's official website. "We controlled the game. They didn’t have anything. We could have scored one or two goals. We scored and in the second half they were a bit better. But it’s the Champions League. Every team is difficult to play against."

Read on here>>>

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