Pep Guardiola makes blunt Champions League admission after crucial Man City win

Pep Guardiola described his players as ‘unbelievable’ after Matheus Nunes struck a dramatic late winner to sink 2-1 at the Etihad on Tuesday night.

“The games against and now Aston Villa were so tough and the players have behaved unbelievably,” declared Guardiola, who celebrated wildly when in added time.

" is emotion. For the fans, players, we have a lot of pressure for the club to go to the . I'm really happy. Aston Villa is a team to the last man, one of the top teams in Europe. We played really good. We were aggressive in our duels, the back four was unbelievable.

“The action from Jeremy Doku… brilliant. He can create something with his pace. The team fought a lot. The performance was really good. It is a fantastic team. The season has been bad. It doesn't matter about the final or if we finish in Champions League.

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"What makes you feel good is the . It happened and sometimes you have bad seasons. will be champions and the level of teams is outstanding."

now sit in third place in the table and are four points clear of sixth-placed and Villa, who are in seventh.

Villa had cancelled out a Bernardo Silva opener with a penalty and the contest looked to be heading for a draw . It was Nunes’ first goal in the for City and he smiled: “It was perfect timing. It could not have come at a better time.

“It was very important. It was a very tough game against a very tough opponent and we came with the mentality that we need to win it - and that is what we did. We are going to see at the end of the season how big this win is going to be.”

now faces the prospect of not qualifying for next season’s Champions League, having reached the last eight this season. But as Emery looked ahead to Saturday’s semi-final against at Wembley, he was not too despondent, saying: “Overall, I am proud of what we are doing.

“I was pushing the players to try and win this match and we got close to the level we wanted but we lost. Now, we focus on the match in London against Crystal Palace.”

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