'We were beaten by a brilliant team'

It was a galling night on Thursday as we were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City. 

Petr Cech was disappointed to lose but praised the champions-elect. 

This is what he told the media afterwards:

on the game…

I think in the first half we were much better organised than at Wembley. I thought that when we had the ball, we had intention to play and put them under pressure. We were more aggressive but I have to say that in the first half we were beaten by a brilliant team with individual quality and obviously with confidence. I think that in the first half that was the big difference because when they scored the first goal, I thought they took a lot of confidence out of us and we took some time to get out of it. They carried on and they scored another two goals. At half-time we were looking for a reaction. We should have scored second half and we probably could have had another go later on. But second half, they probably wanted to protect their lead but we put them under more pressure.

on a lack of ruthlessness…

Well, I think I said that it’s confidence overall. When you are going through difficult moments you take a little thought more than you should and you do probably little things with less speed than a player in confidence. I think that was probably the case. Then you miss a penalty, that can happen in any game, so I think that this moment gave them the reassurance and it became a game where we pushed for a goal but we didn’t find one. It was the difference because in the first half, as I said, it was their individual and team brilliance and the confidence as a team. At the moment they are flying high and you can see that.