Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola appeared in a press conference for the media following the 3-0 loss against Real Madrid in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

The coach said, "3-0 is better than 4-0, of course. Sometimes it's hard to control transitions when losing the ball, and they are good at quick movements. If they can run, it becomes difficult, but we played well. We reached Doku a lot, but we were missing something at the end. We didn't defend well for the first goal, and with Valverde's quality... he was able to shoot perfectly. We will try with our fans."

Regarding the chances of a comeback in the second leg: "Not many, we will try, but we know the chances are very difficult. It's hard to beat them, but we will try with our fans. We can perform better."

He continued: "Today's match was like the Newcastle match. We wanted to create scoring opportunities. They have five defenders, performed well, and it was difficult to find spaces. We couldn't score the goal we needed. Our aim was to position players close to the area, fast players."

He emphasized, "Real Madrid deserved the win. They have Güler, Vinicius, Valverde, Tchouaméni... a team of high quality. They disrupted many of our transitions. In the second half, we played better and created many opportunities to improve the score."

He continued: "I don't feel powerless. We didn't create opportunities that involved Courtois. But how many times did we reach the small area and lacked the final pass... When you do that, it means the process was correct. We didn't have the feeling that Courtois had a great game, but the difference was in the small details. If we had achieved them, we would have scored a goal."

Regarding the difficulty of stopping Real Madrid's transitions: "In the first 15 minutes, it wasn't about the change. The first goal came after a long ball sent by Courtois to Valverde, but we didn't measure the distances. Real Madrid always plays well. This is my 50th match against Real Madrid as a player and coach, and always... when you control them, they can always break out. My feeling is that we weren't bad, but the result doesn't reflect that."

He concluded: "Arbeloa surprised me, yes, they played with five defenders and without a fixed striker. We tried to advance with Ruben Dias and Gihi, and there were good attempts in counterattacks and players' skills."