'The marvellous thing' - Pep Guardiola refuses to blame Man City players or Bernardo Silva for Real Madrid defeat

Pep Guardiola had no complaints over the manner of Manchester City's Champions League exit to Real Madrid - and certainly wouldn't blame Bernardo Silva's poor penalty for the loss.

City dominated proceedings but were chasing the game between Rodrygo's first-half opener and Kevin De Bruyne's equaliser 15 minutes from time. Despite having 33 shots to Real's eight, City couldn't find a way through the resilient Spanish defence, with the lottery of penalties deciding their Champions League fate.

A bad chip straight down the middle from Bernardo and an effort from Mateo Kovacic that wasn't in the corner saw Real progress at City's expense after an epic two legs, with Guardiola refusing to place blame on anyone for the defeat.

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"Bernardo asked to take it, he's a reliable player and decided to shoot in that way," Guardiola said after the game. "Bernardo, what a game he played. It happens.

"We did everything. I don't have any regrets about what we have done. We played exceptional in all departments and unfortunately we could not win. It is what it is.

"It's football. In this competition, that's the way football happens. In other sports, for statistics we would have won but in football it's the marvellous thing about football is this is what happens. The way that we played, the amount of shots that we had, being in there and the transitions we had.

"They scored a great goal with the control of Bellingham and the ball that we put through but we didn't expect to win 4-0 last year and to score four goals. We needed to put in a performance that showed we were ourselves, the way that we've been and that's what we did tonight. We did it in many things. It's not been enough, we're knocked out.

"We could have scored earlier with the way we were playing and then with penalties whatever happens happens. I have to say congratulations to Real Madrid because their ability to resist and defend they did fantastically well until the end of the game and we weren't able to find that final pass, those small details, to score that final goal.

"I have to say thank you to these players from deep in my heart because the way they played. But football is about winning and we didn't do enough yet we were exceptional.

"Sometimes you can win on penalties and sometimes you cannot. But in the game we did not convert the chances that we had. Everyone performed at a high level. We said we would have to be at our best to play Real Madrid and they were."