It was a frustrating day at the office for Pep Guardiola’s men, with the hosts holding firm after Che Adams had given them the lead just after 15 minutes with an impressive first-time lob from long range.
Despite laying siege to the Saints’ goal and forcing some spectacular rear-guard action from goalkeeper Alex McCarthy in the process, our opponents defended doggedly to grab the win.
REPORT: City beaten by resilient Saints
But Bernardo felt we could have come away with a point or more on another day: “I honestly think we played well today, we created plenty of chances, but we couldn’t score them.
“We didn’t play a bad game, we started well in the second half especially and we put a lot of pressure onto them, but we couldn’t finish our chances today.”
The players would have been forgiven for looking a little jaded following our spectacular 4-0 win over Liverpool three days ago, but they continued to fight for a way back into the game right up to the final whistle.
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And although Bernardo believes the performance was not lacking, he admitted there were aspects of their game they need to work on.
“We need to improve, we need to check the little mistakes for example that cost us the goal but I think overall the way the team played was good,” the Portuguese midfielder reflected.
“All teams play in a different way, (Southampton) are a very intense team, a very physical team, so congratulations to them.”
