Pep Guardiola surprised Gary Lineker by launching into a passion rant to criticise the fixture schedule after Manchester City beat Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final.
Bernardo Silva scored an 84th-minute winner to send City into the final, where they will face Manchester United or Coventry. But it was a far from straightforward victory for Guardiola’s side, who rode their luck and required three bad misses from Nicolas Jackson to make it through.
Guardiola appeared live on BBC One shortly after the final whistle to discuss the game with Lineker, Alan Shearer, Frank Lampard and Micah Richards. But rather than chew the fat over another Wembley victory, the City boss wanted to make clear his grumblings at the scheduling, with his side coming into this game after a gruelling 120 minutes in their Champions League quarter-final defeat by Real Madrid on penalties on Wednesday night.
“It’s unacceptable,” he began after a soft ball question from Lineker on the match. “It’s really unacceptable. Coventry, United and Chelsea don’t play in the week, [but] they let us play today. Next week, on Friday it would be better. Instead of Saturday, put it on Friday to let us have a recovery.”
Asked by Lineker if he felt unfairly treated, Guardiola added: “It’s impossible, for the health of the players! It’s not normal. Honestly, it’s not normal. We didn’t have the courage to tell you, to FIFA we shut up, but it’s not possible. It’s unacceptable – 120 minutes. All of you are football players. The emotion against Madrid, the quarter-final, we lose and everything. So honestly, I know this country, it is special for many things but it is for the health of the players. I don’t understand how we survived today.”
Asked if he had raised his concerns with the Football Association, he replied: “Gary, you think us demanding is going to change something? The only power I have is to say here. It’s not going to change anything. I know it for many years. But why we play today and not tomorrow, with one day off, when Coventry and United and Chelsea don’t play in the mid-week? Why?
“Why don’t you have one more day for the health of the players? For me, as a manager, tell me how you prepare for this game against Chelsea in their best moment of the season? How? It’s impossible. There is no chance.”
Alan Shearer pointed out that Guardiola only made four changes from the Real Madrid game. “No, I have, I thought a lot. I remember two or three years ago, it happened the same. We play in Dortmund on the Wednesday, we travel and we play on Saturday against Liverpool, made a lot of changes, 3-0 at half-time. They destroyed us. So I changed a lot, I thought a lot about changing this player.
“Most of them, they weren’t recovered, it was impossible. Not just physicality, you know the way we played in Madrid in the quarter-final, penalties, mentally it’s so tough to recover. They are legends, these guys, what they’ve done in the last seven years and again prove it again. Rodri, the way he played again, Kyle [Walker], the way he run backwards after injury for three or four weeks, and again he’s running against Jackson and [Mykhaylo] Mudryk at the end. I don’t understand how they survive, honestly. So it’s [makes cutting motion] heads off.” He added: “We want to play football. We love to play football, but it’s too much.”
