Aleksandar Kolarov has insisted that Manchester City are a better team than Monaco, but admitted that his side fared poorly in the first half of their 3-1 loss to the French outfit in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The Citizens, who won the first leg of the Round of 16 clash 5-3 at the Etihad Stadium last month, crashed out of the Champions League on away goals, following a 6-6 aggregate scoreline.




Monaco started brightly at the Stade Louis II and found themselves 2-0 up by the 29th minute, courtesy of goals from Kylian Mbappe and Fabinho.

Leroy Sane’s 71st minute strike then enabled Manchester City to take an aggregate lead before the visitors’ hopes of progressing further in the continental competition were dashed by Tiemoue Bakayoko’s header six minutes later.
 


And Kolarov, who conceded that Manchester City failed to impress in France, despite being a better team than Monaco, urged his side to now finish the season on a high.

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“We have two months until the end of the season so I hope we are going to finish in the best way possible in the Premier League and FA Cup”, he was quoted as saying by the club’s official site.

“We have to work hard to improve every game and we will see where we can reach in the end.

“The aggregate score was 6-6, they scored more goals away and they played very good.

“I think we are a better team than them, but in the moment we didn’t play the first half like we wanted to.

“I’d like to congratulate them on going through.

“It’s very painful in this moment for us and a difficult day but we have to look forward to the next games.”

Manchester City, who will face Arsenal in the semi-finals of the FA Cup next month, are currently third in the Premier League with 56 points from 27 games, 10 adrift of leaders Chelsea.