Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City were ‘lucky’ in their 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
The Citizens earned a vital three points in the title race at the City Ground as goals from Josko Gvardiol and substitute Erling Haaland secured victory for the visitors.
However, City were made to work for their win with Nottingham Forest troubling the champions throughout, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side firing more efforts on goal.
Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi were lively in the wide areas, while Chris Wood was guilty of spurning the best opportunities for the home side. The New Zealand international missed a glorious chance when he miscued in front of a gaping goal, from Gonzalo Montiel’s cutback.
City’s opener arrived on 32 minutes when Gvardiol powered home a header from Kevin De Bruyne’s delivery, before Haaland sealed the win after the break, on his return from a two-game absence.
In between the goals, however, City were below their best and Guardiola admits there was some fortune to his side’s win.
“It was more than hard. Such a difficult game but we knew that. The game we played in Brighton feels like a few hours ago so it is always difficult,” Guardiola said to BBC Match of the Day.
“Coming here Liverpool won in the 99th minute, Arsenal won 2-1, so it is always difficult to come here. A difficult game, we suffered a lot but yeah at the end we take it.
“We defended the box really good. Especially with with Manu [Akanji], Nathan [Ake] and Josko [Gvardiol]. Then in the last half an hour when Bernardo [Silva] comes inside with Kova [Kovacic] we controlled the game more. We are a team that survives with the ball. It is a lot of games and we knew today would be difficult for many reasons. But we take the win and move forward.”
Asked how playing after title rivals Arsenal impacted his team, Guardiola said: “The pressure is how you play. if you play good and control the game then people say you don’t feel the pressure, if you play bad people say you feel the pressure.
“In certain moments we suffered. We were lucky today the pitch was so dry, because the chances they missed that was the reason why. We were lucky today that the pitch was in these conditions.”
