Nathan Aké has said Manchester City are “trying to find the reason” they keep throwing away leads after conceding two late goals against Real Madrid.
City led twice at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday and were 2-1 up with just four minutes of normal time remaining.
But goals from Brahim Díaz and Jude Bellingham turned the tie in Real Madrid’s favour, leaving Aké to admit that another late collapse was “hard to take.”
“Obviously the last five minutes or so when you’re winning 2-1 to give it away like that is frustrating and hard to take,” Aké said.
“It’s difficult to be honest. We’re trying to find the reason why.
“There are little details that some games you can get away with but these kinds of games you won’t get away with because they’re a top team. The next one is coming thick and fast so we have to be ready.”
City have been guilty of giving up winning positions a number of times already this season. They’ve thrown away leads against Sporting CP, Feyenoord and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League while Manchester United and Brentford have both produced late comebacks in the Premier League.
“It’s happened a few times now this season and we haven’t learned from it yet so we have to do that as soon as possible,” Aké said.
“Against these kinds of players you’re going to concede chances. We know that they have top players upfront. Obviously we have to do better collectively as a team, as defenders. Most of the time we did well to keep them out.
“But at the end we’re winning 2-1 and we gave it away. That’s the main thing.”
Defeat in the first leg at home means the odds are now stacked against City ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu next week.
They’ve first got to negotiate a tricky league game against Newcastle on Saturday before travelling to Madrid. Aké, though, insisted City can still go through.
“Of course, there’s one goal in it,” he said.
“Today in some phases we showed what we can do, created good chances, played some good football. It’s about little details and if we get that right hopefully we can go through.”