Pep Guardiola admitted the better team had won after Manchester City lost to Brentford in their final outing before the World Cup. The Blues fell behind to an early Ivan Toney goal and although they levelled through Phil Foden's stunning half-volley, Toney scored from a breakaway in the 98th minute to seal a shock victory.
It was an afternoon when City struggled to create clear chances against a determined Brentford side and had plenty of good opportunities of their own, with Toney denied by Ederson on several occasions.
Guardiola felt City struggled to handle Toney, who produced a magnificent performance less than 48 hours after being overlooked for England's World Cup squad.
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Brentford boss Thomas Frank felt the striker could have had five goals in the game and Guardiola had no answers to the Bees' tactical approach.
“The better team won. We had a lot of problems, we couldn’t high press because of the balls [from] keeper to striker," said Guardiola.
"In this process we could not win any ball because when Toney flicked the ball he created problems, when Toney kept the ball and played with the three players in the middle he created problems. And we could not regain the ball in the end.
"In the first 15-16 minutes they had two clear chances and then we have the momentum, we attack a little bit quicker - right cross, left cross, and we make a little bit more of a process.
"In the second half we started well and then there was a break of 10 minutes. Every time break, long balls, we could not win it. We struggled to create because the same reasons as here last season when we [won] here 2-0, with the structure defensively 5-3-2, the striker is so deep and deep and we struggle to let him go outside and crosses they defended really well. We struggled to create chances.
"Tactically we had problems to control. We struggled to control the long balls from Raya to Tony. You have to be brilliant in the small spaces and we were not."
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