“It's in our hands” – Guardiola gains positive attitude from Manchester City's surprising Southampton deadlock

Pep Guardiola made a positive contribution from Manchester City in Southampton’s 0-0 draw, which could prove to be a devastating setback in Champions League football.

City welcomed Erling Haaland to suffer an ankle injury, but he and his teammates were frustrated as Southampton kept their first clean sheets since December to ensure they did not total 11 points in Derby County’s record Premier League points.

Southampton will now end a painful season with at least 12 points, but at the other end of the table is the result that is even more important, with Manchester City missing a chance to finish second and providing a boost to rivals in five Champions League qualifiers.

Manchester City will finish sixth in Nottingham Forest with the most anticipated victory, with six out of five. Instead, the forest can move within the city limits that beat Leicester City on Sunday. If there is a big match title at St James Park between fourth-place Newcastle United and fifth-place Chelsea, they will go past third.

Guardiola was obviously frustrated with Southampton's approach, but Guardiola was relatively optimistic when evaluating his team's performance.

“It's hard. We have a chance, but unfortunately we can't score,” Guardiola told BBC Sport.

“[Southampton were] Defend, defend and defend and waste time. We still take this into our hands.

“[We] I didn't expect them to be so deep. We were very good on defense, but unfortunately we missed the final move.

“This is really important.”

Defender Ruben Dias stressed more in his criticism of Southampton.

“It's really frustrating to play with a team like them. They don't even try to play, they just waste the whole game time,” Dias said.

“I don't even feel like they want to play games or win games. They just sit around. We tried all kinds of ways. We had the chance, but we didn't score. That's it.”

As City sought a decisive goal, Hyland played the full game on his return, which was the importance of seeking a break in the deadlock, resulting in a change in Guardiola's plan.

Guardiola added: “He [Haaland] I didn't expect to play for any few minutes, but we need the people in the box to play the game. ”