Manchester City won Borussia Dortmund 4-1 in the 4th round Champions League and thus ended the series of undefeated streaks Nike Kovača in the group/league phase of the competition, which lasted 12 games. The Croatian coach was not too disappointed after the match.
– We saw that City is better than ours. In the first 15 minutes, we entered well and somewhat controlled the situation. But we didn’t create chances. After that, we were too passive and allowed three goals outside the penalty area. A well-deserved defeat – said Kova. and added:
– On the other hand, there is exceptional quality. That difference was visible. The passes that City played were a lot more čishć than ours. Teammates get balls that are on the ground, while ours are half-high or at knee level. In details, in precision, they were much better than us and that’s why they got more.
Kovač in his coaching career so far, before the game with City, he managed 20 Champions League games and achieved 12 wins, six draws and two losses. As for the group and league stages themselves, the defeat against the “citizen” was his first in the 13th game, which was only accomplished by Louis van Gaal (record holder with 13 unbeaten games) and Fabio Capello (stopped at 12, as well as Kova).
– It must be admitted that City is a world-class team. We don’t have that level yet. That can be said calmly, one should be honest. We want to reach that level, we have to improve and we hope that in the future we will play other matches like this – said Kova. and emphasized his satisfaction with the season so far:
– In the Champions League, we played four games, three of them away, and took seven points. That’s actually not a bad thing. If someone had offered it to me before the season, I would have accepted it immediately. Now we are disappointed, we are not satisfied with the situation.
Let us remind you that during his coaching career, the Croat was the coach of Croatia, and he led Bayern, Monaco, Eintracht, Wolfsburg and Borussia.