That was a tough one to take.
Regardless of what team you’re facing, and the quality (or lack thereof) that they possess, every team theoretically sets out to win matches when they take to the field.
That would have been the case for Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough, whose side faced Manchester City in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday evening.
The League One side were understandably massive underdogs for the game, even before Pep Guardiola named a starting eleven featuring a front six of Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva, Leroy Sane, Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez and Gabriel Jesus.
Unsurprisingly, City laid waste to their visitors, putting nine goals past them and ending the tie before a ball was even kicked in the second leg.
Clough would have been forgiven for not wanting to partake in the formalities of the post-match television interviews, it’s not every day you see your team have that many goals put past them after all, but he was a good sport all the way through.
He praised his players for reaching the last four in the first place, and admitted that once he saw that Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspspir and City were the other three sides that he knew his side were likely to go out.
He also commended his team for preventing Pep’s side from scoring a tenth, as the home side urged them on to do exactly that.
At the end of the interview he even had a little bit of a laugh after the interviewer asked what Guardiola had said to him at the final whistle.
“He said come in and have a glass of wine,” Clough revealed. “I hope he’s got more than a glass.”
“Couple of bottles hopefully,” joked the interviewer.
“I would’ve hoped so, yeah. He’s got some Spanish wine there so we’ll go and join him.”
