Holding a one-goal advantage from last week’s first leg, City dug deep to weather the Spanish champions’ storm in a frenetic second half at the Wanda Metropolitano.
While Guardiola’s men finished the first 45 on top, even hitting the post through Ilkay Gundogan, the boss admits we were braced for a difficult assignment after the break as tired legs from Sunday’s thrilling 2-2 draw with Liverpool took their toll.
Nonetheless, the City boss believes his side deserved to book a date with Real Madrid in the semis on balance across the two legs.
“I didn’t expect anything else. We talked about it half time, ‘get ready for the worst’,” Guardiola reflected.
“We played Liverpool a few days ago, came here and they were all over us in the second half.
“If we hadn’t played the way we played in the first leg we wouldn’t be sitting here saying we got through.
“John (Stones) was brilliant. Aymeric (Laporte) as well. A lot of games in our legs, and travel after Liverpool was so demanding.
“Second half we dropped with our intention but at the end we were there and were lucky to go through.
“But it is two games and in general we deserve to go through.”
