Pep Guardiola maintained he was satisfied with the way Manchester City fought till the final whistle against Celtic in their 2016/17 Champions League tie on 28 September.
Guardiola's 10-match winning run with City in the ongoing season came to an end at the Celtic Park when they played out a 3-3 draw against the hosts in the Group C clash. The visitors were stunned by the Scottish side's intensity and attacking display in front of a loud and energetic crowd, who were fully behind Brendan Rodgers' home team.
Moussa Dembele's double and Raheem Sterling's own goal made sure City had to come back from behind three times in the match to seal a point. Luis Fernandinho, Sterling, who made amends by ending up on the right side of the scoresheet, and Nolito saved the blushes for the Citizens.
The former Barcelona manager said City will now have to fight it hard to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament.
He stressed that his side should see Wednesday's game as a lesson for not starting well and maintained it was impossible for City to emerge successful in all their matches.
"Maybe this is a good lesson for our future on the importance of starting well. They scored three goals but didn't have many chances. We created enough to win the game. When the fourth team in the pot is Celtic you realise immediately how tough it is to qualify for the next round," Guardiola was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
"Thinking about the performance, how they fight, how they tried until the end to win the game, it doesn't matter about the mistakes, I was so satisfied.
"I didn't speak about the record with my players. It was not necessary to make – I'm pretty sure they know we are not going to win all the games, not even the best team in the world can do that. It's impossible."
City are now placed second in the group with four points from two games behind leaders Barcelona, who thrashed Celtic 7-0 in their campaign opener before coming back from behind to edge past Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 on Wednesday. The Premier League table-toppers will meet the La Liga giants in their next two Champions League fixtures.
Speaking of his side's clash against Barcelona, Guardiola promised City will recover well and plan for their big game.
"Against Barca it will be tough but now we analyse what we did, of course we are now second, we are going to recover well and we have time to think about Barca," the 45-year-old added.
