22 February 2023 , 22:49
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Pep Guardiola gave his players a team talk on the pitch after Manchester City's 1-1 draw against RB Leipzig on Wednesday night - before making his frustration clear in a frosty BT Sport interview.
Guardiola's side were held at the Red Bull Arena, despite boasting 62 per cent of possession and enjoying 12 shots on goal. City took the lead in the 27th minute, when Riyad Mahrez pounded on a defensive error to stroke the ball beyond goalkeeper Janis Blaswich.
The visitors failed to double their advantage and were punished in the second half thanks to Josko Gvardiol's towering header. City must now beat Leipzig when the two teams meet at the Etihad on March 14 to keep their Champions League dream alive.
Guardiola was not impressed with his players and held a debrief on the pitch at full-time. He was compared to Phil Brown by Rio Ferdinand, who famously conducted a half-time team talk on the pitch during Hull's 5-1 Premier League defeat at the Etihad on Boxing Day in 2008.
"He’s doing a debrief on the pitch, you don’t really see this," Ferdinand said on BT Sport. "Phil Brown was the last person you saw do that at Hull City!"
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Guardiola's exasperation continued in a prickly post-match interview with BT Sport as he made it clear he was frustrated with any hint of playing down Leipzig's quality. "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?
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"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."
City were fortunate not to concede twice in Germany, as Leipzig defender Benjamin Henrichs missed a glorious opportunity in the 55th minute. Having said that, City were denied a late penalty when Henrichs appeared to handle the ball in his own box.
On the penalty call, Guardiola 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."
Guardiola failed to make a single substitution against Leipzig, despite having the talents of Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden on the bench. "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. "Bernardo [Silva] was giving a lot of control in the middle and we needed that."
On why City failed to win, Guardiola 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."
Rio Ferdinand was surprised by Guardiola's decision to hold a debrief of the pitch at full-time, stating at the time: "I think there’s frustration. After that first-half, which went so well in terms of performance, control of the game, second half was totally different. I think that’s down to Leipzig, you’ve got to give them credit, they changed things, but Man City didn’t really react.
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"I think after watching the whole game, 90 minutes, a draw was probably a fair result. Looking at Pep’s body language there, he’s probably saying, 'Listen, not a bad result, we’ll bring them back to our place and we’ll deal with them back at the Etihad'."