Pep Guardiola bizarrely writes off Man City’s chances of winning the Champions League despite incredible comeback win over Schalke

PEP GUARDIOLA has bizarrely written off Manchester City's chances in the Champions League.

The Premier League holders are favourites to win the competition after their amazing 3-2 fightback at Schalke in the last-16 first-leg last night.

City threw away the lead and went down to ten men after Nicolas Otamendi was sent off, yet still triumphed in Germany.

Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, said: "The result is incredible, three goals away, but we gave away the goals and the red card.

"In this level we don't have a chance. Still we are not ready to fight for the Champions League. After the red card maybe if they'd pushed more and scored a third or fourth then maybe we're out.

"It is not over. Hopefully our fans can help us in the second leg and hopefully we can improve for the future.

"We played good, but we lost some easy balls that we're not allowed to do in the competition."

Sergio Aguero gave City the lead but they went 2-1 down after the referee awarded Schalke two penalties with the help of VAR.

With ten men, both Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling scored late on to set up a comfortable second-leg at the Etihad.

The match was stopped for more than three minutes while VAR determined whether Otamendi had handled a shot from Daniel Caligiuri.

The referee was unable to review the incident himself as the pitchside monitor was broken but a penalty was still given and the Argentine booked.

VAR was again used to award a second spot-kick when Fernandinho pushed Salif Sane down in the box from a free-kick.

Guardiola added: "I'm a big fan of VAR.

"The second one is a penalty too. It was offside too - so, if we complain about VAR maybe it was offside, but it was a penalty and the red card can be a red card.

"VAR needs time. Next time it will be better."