Old Firm match in balance over risk of supporters turning up
Rangers and Celtic face more work to convince the Scottish Government that Sunday’s Premiership clash should go ahead. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed statements from both clubs urging supporters to stay at home and not go to Celtic Park. But no final decision has been taken, with a judgment promised “over the course of the next few days”.
Pep Guardiola said it was inevitable that Raheem Sterling would be unhappy at not playing, and shot down Oleksandr Zinchenko after the wing-back broke ranks to talk up the prospect of Manchester City winning the quadruple this season.
Sterling will be brought back for the second leg of City’s Champions League last-16 tie against Borussia Monchengladbach tonight after the England forward was omitted from Guardiola’s 20-man squad for Saturday’s 3-0 victory against Fulham. That decision came three days after the winger was an unused substitute in a 5-2 win over Southampton.
Sterling, who has not featured in three of City’s past five games, took to Twitter to deny rumours of a confrontation with his manager. Guardiola also dismissed talk of a rift but said he had yet to encounter a player who was happy at not playing.
“Always Raheem and all the players train and react really well,” Guardiola said. “I don’t expect them to be happy, the guys who don’t play and the guys who are not selected. It’s normal. Raheem is so important for the team.
“All the players respect my decisions. I’ve not found one player in my career in 14 years as a manager who is happy when he is not playing. But they react really well and behave really well.
“He doesn’t need to do it [dismiss the rumours on Twitter]. He was not selected, that’s all.”
Guardiola said he wanted players with “arrogance and aggression in their personalities to be better players and become the best players in the world”, and that “if players don’t have the fire inside of them to get better and better and play every single minute, it is an important thing”.
With Monchengladbach unable to travel to England from Germany due to a change in coronavirus rules, the game has been moved from the Etihad Stadium to Budapest. City lead 2-0 from the first leg and Zinchenko said there were “hungry eyes” in the dressing room for an unprecedented quadruple. “We have an unbelievable squad and definitely, why not?” Zinchenko said. “Inside the dressing room, everyone is so hungry for the titles and that is what you want.”
But Guardiola, whose side are 14 points clear at the top of the Premier League and in the final of the League Cup and quarter-finals of the FA Cup – told Zinchenko to focus on the next game only.
“Four titles is a utopia. It never happened before and I think it’s never going to happen,” he said. “If you ask me if I’d agree with Zinchenko, I’d say no.”