Pep Guardiola refuted claims that Manchester City's 4-0 defeat to Barcelona at Camp Nou on Wednesday was his worst loss ever.
The former Barca manager returned to his old stomping ground, only to be dealt a crucial loss through a Lionel Messi hat trick and Brazilian star Neymar adding a fourth.
Claudio Bravo was shown a red card in the 53rd minute when City were already trailing 1-0. before Jeremy Mathieu evened things out when he was sent off late in the game.
Despite the disastrous result, Guardiola denied that it was his worst loss, citing the 4-0 loss in the Champions League to Real Madrid back in 2014 as the one that stood out for him.
"The worst defeat of my career was with Bayern against Madrid," he told AS.
"It was the whole situation and the mistakes I made with the starting line-up."
While his side failed to get on the scoresheet, Guardiola reckoned City created enough goalscoring opportunities but were let down by their defence.
"Last time with Bayern [in 2014] we didn't create chances but today we did, we created chances to score one or two goals," he said.
"But Barca can punish you, they have a lot of quality. We controlled, except the goal."
The win put Barcelona at the top of Group C with nine points while City sit in second place with four points, one ahead of nearest rival Borussia Monchengladbach.