BARCELONA -- Pep Guardiola backed goalkeeper Claudio Bravo after his error led to him being sent off in Manchester City's 4-0 defeat to Barcelona.
The Chilean No. 1, who was making his first return to the Nou Camp since his summer move to City, fluffed a clearance in the 54th minute straight to Luis Suarez and then handled the ball outside the box as he tried to stop the striker's goal-bound lob.
City were already trailing to a Lionel Messi goal but the Argentine striker punished 10 men remaining on pitch by completing a hat trick before Neymar added a late fourth.
It made it another painful return to the Nou Camp for Guardiola, who also lost 3-0 with Bayern Munich on his first visit back to his former club.
But the Catalan insists he will stick to his style of passing out from the back with Bravo as a sweeper-keeper and backed him to bounce back from the mistake.
"Bravo makes no change, he stays the same," Guardiola told a news conference. "Football is a game of mistakes.
"Of course, he knows what he did. He has a lot of experience, he is one of the best goalkeeper in last 10 years. It's a mistake, it happens. He's the first one disappointed, but he will learn about that.
"I'm sorry but until the last day of my career as a coach, I don't know how long it will be, I will try to play out with the goalkeeper.
"Most of the times when we play good it's because we start from there. Sometimes the mistakes will happen."
Guardiola admitted that the red card killed off any hope of rescuing a result and he felt that his tactics had caused Barca plenty of problems up until that point.
He surprisingly left Sergio Aguero on the bench for the game, preferring to start with more players in midfield to disrupt Barca's domination of the ball.
"Aguero was not injured, we wanted one more midfield player and that's why [he was substitute]," Guardiola added.
"The less Barca have the ball, the less chances they have, but of course they have their moments and they punish you.
The first goal was a slip and they scored. Then we're down, we're confused, not easy at Camp Nou.
"But we come back, but after the red card it's very hard to find space and with their attackers it's very difficult.
"Sergio Aguero took it well. It was good. The decision was made this afternoon."