Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was conciliatory in the aftermath of Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s post-match snub after Sunday’s dramatic 4-4 tie.
Guardiola minimized the situation, pointing out that he has no animosity toward Pochettino. The fascinating contest ended with a last-gasp equalizer by Chelsea, denying City all three points as they appeared to have earned with an 86th-minute goal from Rodri.
When he was asked about said incident after the match, Guardiola told reporters: “No problem. It’s not a problem. I don’t want to say one word. It’s completely fine. The emotions happen to me sometimes. It’s fine.”
Pochettino’s immediate focus on confronting referee Anthony Taylor stole the spotlight, overshadowing the customary post-match handshake. Guardiola, showing understanding, refrained from criticizing his counterpart.
Pochettino also explained the situation: “I need to apologise to Anthony, the referees and the fourth official.
In this moment, I feel that maybe Raheem can go through and go to score the fifth and in this moment when the game finishes I turn and say: ‘What the ….?’ You know, what’s going on? I said: ‘Why stop in this moment, the action.’
Then I turned and said “I deserve, I deserve to be booked.’ Because I crossed the limit, so I want to apologise because it’s not a good image for me and for football, this type of behaviour. I also want to apologise to Pep also because I did not see him in this moment.”
The heated match showcased the competitive mentality of the two teams. Instead of focusing on the handshake incident, Guardiola highlighted the game’s exceptional dimension, calling it “not normal.”
Guardiola added: “It’s not normal 4-4. Usually we control more but I can’t remember a game when we come here and had the chances that we had. Even the games we won 0-1 and even last year’s game was much worse than we played today by a million times.
“Do you know what Chelsea have done [to build this team]? In the past it was City, City, City who have done that. Look at what Chelsea have done to create that fantastic team? So it’s normal. It was a fair result. It is what it is. Did you have fun?”
Despite the tension, Guardiola praised his players for earning a hard-fought draw against Chelsea’s formidable squad.
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