Pep Guardiola urged his players not to get hung up on the late goal they conceded against Leeds United after the game, Rico Lewis has revealed.
A heavily-rotated Manchester City side continued their relentless winning streak on Saturday as they overcame Leeds United with a narrow 2-1 win, though the margin should have been much greater. The Blues dominated Sam Allardyce's new side and raced into a two-goal lead when Ilkay Gundogan scored two near-identical goals from the edge of the area.
The Blues were strolling to victory and had the chance to put it firmly to bed in the 83rd minute when they were awarded a penalty. Usual taker Erling Haaland handed the ball to Gundogan so he could grab his first-ever hat trick, but the German hit the post.
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Guardiola was furious Haaland didn't take it and his rage was compounded moments later when Leeds pulled one back through Rodrigo. It made the final few minutes of an otherwise-comfortable afternoon needlessly tense but City held on to stretch their lead at the top of the table.
Lewis has revealed what the manager told his players after the game. He said: "He reminded us how good we played and not to let our heads go down about conceding a goal at the end. We still played really well and dominated the whole game. It’s something to learn from.
“It’s not always going to be plain sailing. It’s good to have those kinds of shocks where we wake up and in the next games, we won’t have that.”
Lewis was making his first start since March and was delighted to get back on the field. “Overall, happiness. To be back playing football with the rest of the lads is what I dream of every day," he added. "Even though I’ve not played for a while, I think I got back into it pretty quickly and we ended up with the result that we wanted. I’m very happy.
“Definitely a bit of relief but we had control of the whole game. In the Premier League you never know what can happen. Every team has got quality and if you get them the chance, they’ll punish you. We didn’t put the game to bed early enough and had a bit of a shock. The team reacted to it, and we ended up with the result which is all we needed.”
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