Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that defeat will be good for The Citizens, as their 27-game unbeaten run came to an end on Wednesday night as they were defeated 2-1 by Shakhtar Donetsk.

It is never nice to lose a game

It has been a blistering start to the campaign on all fronts thus far, and travelled to the Ukraine already knowing that their status as group winners and a side in the last-16 was already secured but despite that Guardiola stated his side headed to Eastern Europe looking to win.

Guardiola opted to freshen up his side ahead of Sunday's Manchester derby with the likes of Phil Foden being brought in, but could do nothing to stop Shakhtar taking a two-goal in the first period with goals from Bernard and Ismaily.

Sergio Agüero​ managed to half the deficit in extra-time from the spot but could do nothing to prevent their first defeat, but post-match Guardiola stated that though he was "hurt" he stated that it will benefit his side in the long haul.

"It hurts. It is never nice to lose a game," Guardiola told his post-match press conference. "But we have said many times we cannot win all the time, we are going to lose games. Today was the first."

"We needed to lose a game. It will be good for the club, for all of us and the media," the coach proclaimed. "People say things when you win a lot and you can forget that now."

"We saw many good things but we made mistakes and we are going to improve on that," the Catalan added. "Football is how you recover in the good moments and bad moments to stay stable."

That is a really important match for us

Though losing a prestigious record will be a tough pill to swallow for players and fans alike, all focus will turn to Sunday's crucial clash with local and title rivals Manchester United.

City head to Old Trafford with a clear eight point lead at the top of the Premier League but with United's recent record and City's recent struggle to break down teams it will make for an interesting clash, and midfielder Bernardo Silva stated his hopes of securing the win.

"We will try our best to win all the competitions," he stated to mancity.com. "Today it was a big opportunity for most of the players that are not playing as much as the others."

"I hope we can win at the weekend (against Manchester United)," Silva concluded. "This is a really important match for us."

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Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.