The key to lock the City
Guardiola left frustrated by ‘most British’ Burnley
BURNLEY: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said their performance in the 1-1 draw at Burnley was one of the best of the season but the Spaniard was frustrated by his side’s failure to score more goals against what he called “the most British of teams”.
City had over 70% possession against Sean Dyche’s team on Saturday but after Brazilian Danilo gave the visitors a 22nd minute lead, they failed to turn that dominance into goals and paid the price when Johann Berg Gudmundsson levelled in the 82nd.
“Of course we are frustrated in terms of the result but the performance was outstanding against a Burnley side who are the most British of teams in terms of long balls and the way they play,” said Guardiola after the Premier League game.
“What they do, they do really, really, well,” added the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach, who was left to rue his side’s missed chances, including an abso- lute sitter from close range by Raheem Sterling in the 71st minute.
“Football is about goals. We needed to score the second, third and fourth when we had the chance. When you arrive in the last 15 minutes at Burnley 1-0, this is what can happen. I’m sad for the players because we played so well,” he said.
Burnley are seventh in the standings, well above expectations for a team with one of the smallest budgets in the league, and they stuck at the task despite City outplaying them for large stretches of the game.
Sterling was substituted three minutes after missing from pointblank range with the goal at his mercy but Guardiola said the error was not behind his decision.
“No, not for that reason. No, it is football. Next day he is going to score. Today he missed one chance. That is football. That can happen,” he said.
“It was not just Raheem, it was a lot. We arrive in the last action and we were not able to do that. It was
an outstanding performance. We are sad for the dropped two points but to come here and play the way we played is almost impossible,” he said.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche said Sterling’s astonishing miss from close range was the moment that changed the game at Turf Moor.
“We stayed in it and that’s an important thing, if the game plan is not quite to how you want it you
have to stay in the game and we did,” said Dyche.
“Second half, they came out and controlled it in the first 15 minutes. You’ve got to be diligent and do all the ugly stuff, which our players are willing to do.
“Then we grew into the game. Their keeper (Ederson) makes an unbelievable save (from Aaron Lennon) and then there is an unbelievable miss. That changed the feeling, the stadium erupted, everyone came with us,” said Dyche.
“Then we played some good stuff, the quality was on show and it was a fantastic goal,” he added, referring to Gudmundsson’s crisp strike from a fine ball into the box from Matt Lowton.
“It was a strange kind of game, which you can have against these because they’re so dominant with the ball, but I am very pleased to come through it with a point,” he said.