Guardiola says City suffered a \'cruel\' exit from Champions League

SHOWS: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, UK (APRIL 17, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER PEP GUARDIOLA, SAYING: "It's cruel but it is what it is and we have to accept it.

It was a nice game for everybody and a lot of talent here after 20 minutes you know 2-3, and in the second half we did everything.

So maybe not easy to create chances but we create a lot, (but) if we make a mistake in that competition it punishes us a lot but we knew it and we scored the goals that we needed and unfortunately at the end it was a bad end for us, so congratulations Tottenham and his team and his side and all the best for the semi-finals." STORY: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola called his side's elimination after an epic night of Champions League soccer "cruel" but offered his praise for Tottenham and wished them luck in their semi-final match-up against Ajax.

The game started off explosively with the scoreline at 2-2 just 10 minutes into the second leg after Spurs had won the first leg 1-0 at their new stadium in London.

Spurs needed a draw on aggregate thanks to the away goals rule and had the game at 4-3 down on the night, 4-4 on aggregate with the game moving into stoppage time.

City then capitalised on an error by Christian Eriksen as Spurs defended deep with Sergio Aguero laying the ball off to Raheem Sterling who scored in what seemed to be his hat-trick as the stadium erupted with joy.

The decision to reward the goal was then reversed due to an offside call reviewed through VAR.