Pep Guardiola warns Manchester City could collapse again in Champions League clash with Liverpool

Guardiola admitted he does not yet know how to make his team 'close the door' while staying true to their principles

Pep Guardiola saw his side concede three times for the second time in a week (Getty)

Pep Guardiola has admitted that Manchester City’s incredible collapse to lose Saturday’s Manchester derby could be repeated against Liverpool on Tuesday night unless he learns how to “close the door” defensively.

Victory over Manchester United at the Etihad on Saturday would have seen City crowned Premier League champions and the dream looked likely when goals from Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan gave the hosts a 2-0 lead at half time.

Two quickfire Paul Pogba strikes in the opening stages of the second half put the champagne on ice, however, before Chris Smalling’s volleyed winner inflicted City’s first league defeat at home since December 2016.

After last week’s 3-0 Champions League defeat at Anfield, this was also the first time that a Guardiola side has conceded three in consecutive games. United’s goals on Saturday came in the space of just 16 minutes, Liverpool’s in 19.

The City manager was reluctant to blame his defence for the derby collapse but ahead of Tuesday’s return leg against Liverpool, where conceding even once could kill off his faint hopes of progression, Guardiola admitted there is a risk of the same happening again.

“Yeah, it can happen,” he said. “Yeah it’s difficult in itself, it’s difficult for our mood not winning today and yeah, that can happen. But maybe we will improve for the future on that, to realise that sometimes it’s not enough what you’ve done to win the games.

“I have to be happy. I like to watch my team, the way we play this season and the way we played in the first half [on Saturday] but when you play against Liverpool or in Europe, when you have that momentum you have to close the door. And we didn’t close it [against United].”

When asked what he could to do help ‘close the door’, Guardiola said it is a problem he is yet to solve and harked back to Barcelona’s victory over his Bayern Munich side at the Nou Camp in May 2015, won by a late Lionel Messi brace and Neymar strike.

“I thought many times about that,” he said. “I’ve dropped a lot of Champions League games in the space of 10 or 15 minutes. I think about that many times. Barcelona 77 minutes 0-0, 90 minutes 3-0. It happened many times.

“Maybe it’s my fault. I have to think about it. But I feel that when you dominate and create chances, you are closer to winning games and I think this season showed that.

“The numbers we have done in terms of goals but not just goals, the chances we concede, we are the best with these type of players, is few.

“But it’s impossible when the opponents arrive four times and score three goals [like United on Saturday] – there is no system that can sustain that, so it’s so complicated.”