Pep’s pretty happy but Mourinho is
Guardiola was impressed at how City had avoided a repeat of last year when they were 2-0 up in this fixture but conceded three goals in the second half.
Although City slipped back to 2-1, they controlled the game after that and ended up comfortable 3-1 winners.
“The first half was not so good, we played like ‘I don’t want to lose the ball’ but not with the intention to attack, or to do something,” Guardiola said.
“I felt when I watched my team, that we felt the pressure. The second half, we started much, much better. After we conceded, always it’s inevitable to think about last season what happened again in that situation. But we didn’t concede one other chance, we defend so well. The last 30 minutes we made a very, very good game.”
That second half stability made all the difference to Guardiola.
“After the second goal, the most satisfying thing is after 2-1, we react well,” he added.
“We are stable. We didn’t concede chances. Step by step we regain our game again. And after of course, after the third goal was easier.”
Jose Mourinho ignored the stats from Manchester United’s poor season so far, and blamed the defeat on the sides’ different weeks. While United travelled to Turin for a tough match against Juventus, Guardiola’s side had an easy home win against Shakhtar Donetsk, and the derby wasn’t that much more difficult for the champions.
That leaves Mourinho’s team eighth in the table and on a negative goal difference, 12 points above Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Southampton — the same number of points adrift of City.
“If you focus on the game today, it was open for 80-something minutes,” Mourinho claimed.
“I think nobody left the stadium before their third goal be-