De Bruyne and Haaland asking to be subbed due to tiredness left me SHOCKED

Chris Sutton admitted he was left shocked by Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland asking to be substituted against Real Madrid because they were tired.

Man City were knocked out of the Champions League by the Spanish giants on penalties on Wednesday after their quarter-final tie ended 4-4 on aggregate.

It means there will be no Double Treble for City, who were hoping to go back-to-back in the competition having finally won it for a first time last season.

De Bruyne and Haaland were both withdrawn as the game drew to a close, with Julian Alvarez replacing the Norwegian ahead of extra-time, while Mateo Kovacic came on for De Bruyne after 112 minutes.

Speaking post-game, Pep Guardiola revealed they were enforced withdraws as he said: 'Erling and Kevin asked me to go out. They could not continue.

'They were playing amazing; I'm not a big fan of so many substitutions but Kevin, Erling and Manu (Akanji) asked me to go out because they could not continue.'

And former Premier League winner Sutton, speaking on Mail Sport's It's All Kicking Off podcast alongside Ian Ladyman, couldn't quite believe Guardiola's comments.

'I've got to say, I'm really surprised if they did ask to come off,' he said. 'There are those out there who would say, well, De Bruyne and Haaland, had they stayed and taken a penalty then Manchester City would have stood a better chance of winning that shootout.

'Pep has to do what's best for his team. But I can't remember too many times in my career when players on my own team asked to come off.

'So I suppose if they are injured and not available for the weekend, that's something else. But on the face of it, I'm a little bit surprised about that.'

City's clash against Real was their 51st game of the season in all competitions, while Guardiola's side have nine players who have played more than 3,000 minutes across all competitions - the most of any Premier League club.

Meanwhile, Rodri also admitted last week that he was in need of a rest after a gruelling schedule.

City return to action on Saturday when they take on Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, before facing seven fixtures over the final four weeks of the season.

And, when Sutton and Ladyman discussed the issue of tiredness hanging over City for the rest of the campaign, Sutton felt they would be fine, but also claimed that publicly voicing fatigue was not a good mindset to be in.

He added: 'I think that this is a City team who have been there and done it and are used to seasons where you're just flooded with games.

'They're going to feel down this morning, the day after a game you get knocked out. But, they've bounced back so many times.

'It's about the opportunity. So you can't at this stage of the season tell yourself you're mentally tired, which is why the comment about Pep saying Haaland and De Bruyne wanted to come off surprises me a little bit. You can't go in with that mindset that you're tired.

'They're nearly there, they're nearly over the line. The mindset should be, let's finish the season strongly. Let's not whimper and fall away.

'They are used to three games a week, these players, but it seems that this season, and I may be wrong, did Rodri not say a while back that he was tired? Why would you say that?

'As a player at this stage of the season this is where you dream to be at, you want to win everything, you want to hoover everything up.

'So this tired thing, we're all tired, but you can't spread that message. That's actually quite a dangerous message to send out.'