Ilkay Gundogan Reveals Final Day Frustrations Despite Aston Villa Heroics

Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan has said that he was unhappy not to be starting in the club’s title-deciding match on the final day of the season.

The German came off the bench against Aston Villa with the scoreline at 2-0 to the visitors and helped turn the game completely on its head.

With just 15 minutes to go, Gundogan scored two crucial goals either side of a long range Rodri strike to give City the Premier League title in dramatic fashion.

That special game is being spoken about once again now that the club are releasing a new and exclusive behind the scenes documentary which will cover the final day antics.

Gundogan himself has remarked that before his heroics he was actually unhappy regarding his place on the bench at the start of that famous day.

"It didn't start that well for me," said Gundogan while discussing the game at the premiere of ‘Together: Champions Again!’, City’s new documentary.

"I was highly expecting to start that game and I didn't. The week before I hadn't started the West Ham game, so I was quite confident in starting against Aston Villa.

"I was a bit frustrated as you can imagine but I still tried to be focused and support the guys that were starting and I think I put that frustration a little bit into the game.

"Things didn't start so well when I got subbed on as we were 10 seconds in and we conceded the second goal and then, to be honest, as a professional football player you always try to do your best, do the simple things.”

"We scored the first goal and luckily that happened, then in ten minutes we scored the three goals. Everything happened so

quickly, it's still difficult for me to analyse as it all happened so quickly.”

It wasn’t the first time that the German had played a major role in delivering the Premier League title to the Etihad Stadium after the player scored an impressive 17 goals in the 2020/21 campaign, stepping up in the absence of a regular striker in the squad.

On top of this, Gundogan also scored on the final day of the 2018/19 season against Brighton & Hove Albion in a win that also sealed the title for the Citizens.

The German is heading into his seventh season at the club after being Pep Guardiola’s inaugural signing in Manchester back in 2016.

Gundogan has one year left on his contract with the Premier League champions and it remains to be seen whether he will sign a new contract before the current one expires next summer.