Pep Guardiola rues 'missed opportunity' after Southampton draw

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola described Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Southampton as a 'missed opportunity', specifically pertaining to their pursuit of Champions League qualification.

City could move up with Arsenal in second position with the win, but remain at number three with 65 points while Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa have 63 points each.

A win for either Chelsea or Newcastle United on Sunday could now see City slip to fourth place.

Although Guardiola did not criticise the Saints’ approach, he claimed that their game plan was to defend and waste time.

He further explained that he respects the opponents and wants to break their plans, but today they were not able to do that.

He acknowledged that Manchester City got several chances but missed the opportunity by failing to bank on them.

“The result, of course, it’s a missed opportunity today, we know that,” said Guardiola.

“I respect what opponents decide to do, we have to break them, it’s happened many times in our careers. But today we missed to break the game,” the Spaniard said.

“Difficult. We had chances but unfortunately couldn’t score. [Southampton were] playing to defend and defend and defend and waste time. We take that point still, it’s in our hands.

“Didn’t expect them to defend so deep. Defensive we were so good but unfortunately we missed the last actions."