Manuel Pellegrini has come out fighting as he approaches the end of his Manchester City reign, defending his team's approach against Real Madrid and rubbishing claims he does not care about a top-four finish.
Pellegrini, who will be replaced by Pep Guardiola this summer, will not have a Champions League final to look forward to after his side were beaten 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The defeat leaves him with just two more matches in charge of the Blues, and their clash with Arsenal on Sunday represents an opportunity to finally seal their place in the Premier League's top four to end an inconsistent season.
Pellegrini has presided over 10 league defeats and, this week, received heavy criticism for failing to take the game to Madrid in the dying moments, but he says he would not do anything differently and insists they tried to attack as normal.
"No no, anything different, no," he said. "I think that we didn't have any tactical problems, we had technical problems, not tactical.
"We did [attack], we tried to do it in both games, here and in Spain. The way I talked to the players before the game we were trying to do our normal football. If we couldn’t it was for different reasons, not because our mentality was not to attack, our mentality was the same in every game.
"Anything I say will be an excuse, and I don't want to use any excuse. Before the semi if you asked me if I was happy that Real Madrid would just score one goal in two games I would say yes, because you all were very worried about our defending.
"If you asked me that we wouldn’t score any goals in two games and wouldn't shoot it would be strange because we never do that, we continue being always the most scoring team.
"For different reasons I think that we had a lot of imposition, especially in the second game. And you are always playing with the feeling that if you don't win the game, that if you draw, you are in the final, so there are a lot of reasons why we couldn’t score, but more than that there was too much imposition with the ball."
There have even been claims by some fans and pundits in recent weeks that Pellegrini is not interested in finishing in the top four this season, with suggestions from the outside that he is unhappy with the way the Guardiola situation has been handled.
He was also criticised for resting players in last weekend's heavy defeat at Southampton, but he attempted to justify that decision as he moved to insist he is concerned about how the club finish the season.
"Of course I think it’s very important to reach the Champions League," he contested. "I finish my contract here but of course I’m worried about that because I want to finish the season in the best way.
"Also because I think we deserve to be in the Champions League next year. The whole season we have been in the Champions League spots from the beginning to the end.
"Continuing to the semi-final it is not easy to have your mind on both competitions. We did it except in the game against Southampton. All the other games we did it. If I was just worried about the Champions League I would have changed every important player for the Premier League games.
"Except for the last game, because it was so important to make the final, all the other Premier League games we put out our strongest teams. Of the last 5 games we lost just won, so I’m absolutely interested that this team continues in the Champions League next year.
"It’s very important for me also so I don’t understand that speculation."...
- Goal