Pep Guardiola praises Leeds United figure and makes admission about Whites comeback at Man City

A hugely dominant City led 2-0 at the interval through a brace from Ilkay Gundogan who then looked to complete a hat-trick when taking a second-half penalty awarded for Pascal Struijk’s foul on Phil Foden. Gundogan, though, saw his penalty tipped on to the post by Whites keeper Joe Robles whose side then pulled a goal back a minute later through Rodrigo.

City eventually saw out the game to pick up all three points but Guardiola admitted the contest was far from over with just a 2-0 lead and that regular penalty takers Erling Haaland or Riyad Mahrez should have taken the spot kick.

The City boss also praised new Whites manager Sam Allardyce and in particular his impact at improving his side’s set pieces which Guardiola was highly pleased his team stood firm from.

"The performance was excellent,” said Guardiola. "We played really, really well. We were not clinical enough but that's football. I'm not going to explain my feelings for the game for the last five or six or seven minutes but in general it was really good, the first half better than the second.

"The second half was under control and everything and then who knows if Erling takes the penalty and he misses? What happens if Riyad takes the penalty and misses? What happens if Ilkay Gundogan takes a penalty and scores?

"The question is at 2-0 who is the taker and the taker is Erling, it is Riyad and they have to take it at 2-0. That's how Erling is as a person. I have said it many times, he is incredible and he wants to score a lot of goals but at the same time the team and his team mates are important.

"He had chances to score, he didn't convert but he played an outstanding game. But at 2-0, especially in England it is never over and I want the specialist taker to take it but that means Erling or Riyad is going to take a penalty and going to score and maybe not. Who knows?"

Guardiola added: "The game could have been over for the chances that we had. For maybe 89 minutes we were really good and we read it perfectly because (Marc) Roca and (Weston) McKennie followed the pockets to Julian (Alvarez) and Kevin (De Bruyne) in the spaces for (Ilkay) Gundogan and Rico and Rico was incredible.

"We played really good, They had one shot on target (before the goal) and from set pieces they are good. Sam Allardyce, his teams are always good at set pieces. He is a master. But in general we were really good."