Frustrated Guardiola speaks to journalists after Man City and RB Leipzig draw

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By Martin Graham | 24th Feb 2023

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola gave a very cold interview post-match following his side’s 1 – 1 draw with German club Red Bull Leipzig.

The Premier League defending champions visited the Red Bull Arena, Leipzig, for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie. They went ahead in the 27th minute through Riyad Mahrez but were unable to muster anything else until Man City summer transfer target Josko Gvardiol restored parity for the hosts in the 70th minute.

It was a game that betrayed the possession statistics as Manchester City enjoyed 62 percent of the ball by full time. The Premier League giants even enjoyed as much as 80% of the ball in the first half, to further cast aspersions on their real influence on the game.

They were also lucky not to concede the match winner to their hosts as Leipzig defender Benjamin Henrichs missed an opportunity in the 55th minute. City were also denied a late penalty when Henrichs appeared to handle the ball in his own box.

The match was Man City’s second straight draw following their failure to secure their short-lived stay at the top of the Premier League thanks to Nottingham Forest holding them over the weekend.

The outing in Leipzig displeased Guardiola and he did something uncharacteristic by conducting his debrief on the pitch after the match.

Following the unusual incident, Guardiola gave a very cold interview to the journalists who were waiting for his post-match comments.

“I’m happy for the whole game, not just the first half,” he said. “What do you expect? We play a friendly game here, how many games do you know from RB Leipzig? How many games?

“People expect here we’re going to win zero five – that is not reality. In this competition in the group stage many important teams are out and it is difficult. We knew it, it is our fourth game in 10 days, a lot of away games, the travels, and the people expect?

“No, we are a good team that do many, many good things and we will continue to do this. The people come here expecting zero four? I’m sorry, we are not able to do this.”

Guardiola also spoke on the missed penalty call and his decision to not make any substitutions in the game.

On the penalty call, the former Bayern Munich manager said: “Like I said, the goal for Gvardiol and the penalty, I didn’t see it, I didn’t see it so I cannot talk about it, but I know what happened.”

On his decision not to make a substitution, he said: “I saw the team, especially the middle, and at the end I decided to continue with what I had, especially the back four,” he explained. “{statorium_player pid=94 sid=165 text=”Bernardo [Silva]”} was giving a lot of control in the middle and we needed that.”

Then he added: “They made a step forward, they were pressing more higher, they create more problems in the build-up, but after the goal we concede we came back and picked up last 15, 20 minutes so we had good chances in both halves, and the result, we go back to Manchester.”