Manchester City played 'one half' against Chelsea, says Pep Guardiola | city of manchester
A frustrated Pep Guardiola criticized Manchester City for playing only “one half” in Saturday's match 1-1 draw with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium which leaves the champions third, four points behind Liverpool, with a game in hand.
Raheem Sterling's 43rd-minute goal came from a breakaway play that took advantage of City's lax defense in the first period, before Rodri's late equalizer split the points.
Guardiola said: “We played incredibly in the second half. The first half was not at our (normal) level, but to compete against these (levels) of teams you have to play 90 minutes, not just one half.”
Rodri agreed with his manager. “When you defend like we did you can't get more. We didn't have a great first half,” said the midfielder. “We conceded another easy goal, we have to defend better, we have to be honest with ourselves, because from then on it is always more difficult.”
Rodri was not happy with Andy Madley, the referee. “I don't want to talk about the referee, but I don't remember a game with so many VAR controls and none on our part, come on man. You always see the referee's face and now it's, 'Keep going, keep going,'” he said.
Although Guardiola would not depend on refereeing, City's pending match is on Tuesday when they host Brentford.
“We are going to try to get the points,” said the City coach. “I will focus on my team and I am disappointed with the result. “We did the best we could and it ended 1-1.”
Mauricio Pochettino was satisfied with the draw ahead of next Sunday's Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.
“We are a very young team that needs to experience this type of game to improve and create the spirit we need. “I am very happy,” said the Chelsea coach. “I told the players that I feel very proud. In the last three games we have started to create a very good spirit. This is how we want to build our team. Today was a very good opportunity to show that we are going where we want. In every game we show that we want to be competitive.
“Now we have a very good game against Liverpool. The most important thing is to keep believing. Now we have to recover and prepare for the game as best as possible. We need to feel that it is possible to beat Liverpool. I think we are going to play against the second best team in the world. “I think faith is the most important thing and now we need to recover and prepare for the final.”
