Guardiola added that he refused to risk Kevin De Bruyne, who was on the bench, as he feared stitches in his foot might come off.

“On Friday, he had four stitches in his right foot when he hit the ball. He can walk and run, but in the end if he opens his stitches we maybe lose him for Brighton [in midweek] or more,” he said. “Of course, he could maybe play from the beginning or second half, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

“If it opened again and it is infected, you can take antibiotics like what happened in Madrid and that is why I made the decision.

“When you play a lot of games, you adapt and these situations happen. The game was really tough for us and we tried to put energy in the team with the players, but you have to be strong to maintain that. In the second half we said ‘come on’ accept the ball and put energy in.

“We found the goal and at that moment, they continued to play, but we had chances with Gabriel Jesus, the game was there.”