Pep Guardiola has confirmed all of Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji asked to come off during Manchester City’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.
Antonio Rudiger struck the winning spot-kick to eliminate the holders and end hopes of an unprecedented double-treble as Los Blancos enacted some revenge on City following last season’s chastening semi-final defeat.
Rodrygo had nosed Madrid ahead in the tie after a pulsating 3-3 draw in the Spanish capital last week before De Bruyne levelled in the second-half.
Despite all of City’s dominance, they failed to add to the Belgian’s strike and De Bruyne himself missed a fantastic chance to put his team ahead only minutes after scoring.
Attention now turns to Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea at Wembley and Guardiola was asked about the fitness of De Bruyne and Haaland respectively after they were withdraw before the penalty shootout.
"Erling and Kevin asked me to go out, like Manu, they could not continue,” he said.
“The game we were playing they were amazing and I am not a big fan of making a lot of substitutions but Kevin, Erling and Manu asked me to go out."
Guardiola also thanked his players for their “exceptional” commitment during a gruelling tie.
“We created the chances to do it but football is about scoring goals, Madrid did it better from the penalty spot,” he added.
“But I have the opportunity to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to these players. The performance, the commitment was exceptional."
Bernardo Silva was one of two City players to miss a penalty as his tame effort was easily saved by Andriy Lunin but Guardiola praised the midfielder’s performance.
“He said he wanted to take one and he is a reliable player,” he said.
"But what a game he had."
Madrid will meet Bayern Munich in the semi-finals after they beat Arsenal on Wednesday evening.
