Manchester City midfield Ilkay Gundogan insisted that the hostile reception his team bus received on arrival at Anfield had no adverse effect on his side's performance in their 3-0 Champions League defeat against Liverpool.
The arriving City coach was hit by cans and bottles and had to drive through flare smoke let off by Liverpool fans who were waiting to greet their own side’s arrival at Anfield.
City’s coach was damaged and Liverpool issued an immediate statement in which they apologised to their opponents and to Pep Guardiola and his players.
On the pitch, City were undone by a blistering first half display from Liverpool along with a dogged defensive show in the second half and Gundogan had no excuses to offer after the game.
Ilkay Gundogan insisted that the hostile reception his club received on arrival at Anfield had no adverse effect on his side's performance #LIVMCI #ChampionsLeague #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/qfs7vHB55e
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) April 4, 2018
When asked by RTÉ Sport whether or not the incident outside the stadium had any negative effect on his side, Gundogan denied that it did and insisted that it only served as further motivation for him and his team-mates.
"No," he said. "Normally these kind of things are more for the fans and the supporters who are doing this kind of stuff to get out the adrenaline they have inside them or just the emotions.
"For me it was more something like extra motivation, to sit on the bus and to feel already something like hate, you know? Which is, of course, not a good thing but also quite normal in football.
"For me it was more something like an extra push as if it was needed but obviously we couldn’t show that on the pitch."
Gundogan admitted that his side were frustrated by a much improved Livepool defence and he claimed that his side are now the underdogs when it comes to progressing to the semi-finals.
"In the way the result was created we felt like we were a bit unlucky. We expected a tough game but of course we didn’t expect to concede three goals in the first half.
"That killed the game a little bit and in the second half we tried our best to score at least once, which would improve our situation for the second leg massively.
"So now it seems like it is very difficult in the second leg. We are nearly not allowed to concede a goal and we have to score at least three.
"But we’ve done that in the past a lot of times and also against Liverpool in the first half of the season, so it’s not impossible but it’s very tough."
