Ilkay Gundogan identifies three aspects where Manchester City went wrong against Shakhtar Donetsk

Ilkay Gundogan has challenged his Manchester City teammates to improve if they want to win in the Champions League's knockout stages. City qualified for the Champions League last-16 as the Group C winners with a 1 - 1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk. Gundogan was the scorer from the Pep Guardiola's side, while Manor Solomon's 68th-minute goal equalized the game score. Speaking on the City's performance, Gundogan admitted they were not good enough to have more success in the fixture. He told: "Obviously I wanted to score to be decisive to win today. Unfortunately, we got the draw which we have to accept but we are through as group leader. So that’s the most important thing tonight even if we have to improve." The player picked three aspects of their performance that need to improve. "We knew this game would be tough. We let Shakhtar do a great job and we let them play. We didn’t defend as good as we normally do, our build-up was sloppy and slow. We struggled also to create. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our best performance but this is the Champions League. It’s a competition where you need to struggle, you have to struggle. We have to learn to deal with it because when the knockout stages start we need to be prepared for it. We are on the way, in the Premier League we are nine points behind the leader so not what we would aim but this is the situation we have to deal with. The Premier League is so competitive and so strong. We dropped unnecessary points a few games already and to maintain and be on top you are not allowed to. Liverpool showed that impressively week by week but we need to be there if they slip and make a mistake to try to close that point by point. In the Champions League, we are through as leaders which at the moment is the most important thing but there is still plenty of room to improve. When I say improve, I don’t mean results they will come automatically, I mean the way we play defensively and offensively," he added.

Source: MEN

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