Riyad Mahrez’s opener on 27 minutes, following a dominant first half performance, was cancelled out by Josko Gvardiol’s headed leveller on 70 minutes.
That set the tie up for an exciting finale at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday 14 March, with the winner making it through to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Guardiola was seen talking to his players in the aftermath of the game – and revealed the discussion points as he met with the media after the match.
He said: “They were heads down.
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“I said ‘why are your heads down’? Heads up! It was really good. You played the game we should play.
“At the end it could be more of course but this can happen. Sometimes this can happen. We could not always do the control that we need to do.”
Guardiola also revealed he was not shocked by the way Leipzig came back into the tie after a below-par opening 45 minutes for the hosts.
He said, from his own experience managing in Germany, that resilience and determination were watchwords in the Bundesliga.
On Leipzig’s second half, he added: “They make a step forward.
“I said at half-time, forget about it and do what we have to do in the second half.
“The manager and the fans will not accept the same again. Their intensity will not be like the first half.
“Even then we had chances with Riyad from the pass back from Gundogan and Erling’s situation and that’s normal.
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“I was here three years and the biggest quality of teams in this country is to never give up.
“They keep going and going for the 90 minutes.
“They had it and we concede a goal but in general, really, absolutely pleased.
“We have a game in Manchester and the best team is going to go through.”
Watch the press conference in the video player above.
