Neestrup reacts to Man City defeat

Jacob Neestrup says the 3-1 defeat to Manchester City in Tuesday's UEFA Champions League clash at Parken was a "difficult" one to stomach.

The Lions held the defending European champions at 1-1 thanks to Magnus Mattsson's first-half strike but City scored in first- and second-half stoppage time to take the spoils.

"It was a hard and difficult evening," said the head coach.

“They came into it with a very professional mindset and applied their game from the start. We endured a bit of a tempo shock in the first 20 minutes. It's the combination of us meeting a team with their class and also us coming back from two months without competitive games. But even if we had played five or six competitive matches in a row, we would still have had a hard time today.

“I'm quite satisfied with his we grew into the game in the last 20 minutes of the first half, where we got the equaliser and had a chance to go ahead. It wasn't deserved, but still… and of course it's a shame that they scored in stoppage time, because the dressing room at half time would have been better.

"But they were clearly better than us, and the second half was an uphill challenge where we were chasing them a lot and in vain. Again, of course, it annoys me that they scored in extra time, but I am very clear about the fact that we lost to a team that are clearly better than us in all departments. And they are one to two levels above what we faced in the group stage in the autumn.

"I am satisfied with how we gave it our all. The players do not back down but really went for it. We wanted to do more towards the end, but couldn't. We hoped that substitutions would give us a little boost, like when Christian Sørensen came on against United in the final stages, but tonight we were just pushed too deep, and when we tried to go high on them, they played past us like no other teams we have faced."