Guardiola hits out at fans for mocking Munich disaster
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola condemned the actions of supporters after allegations last night of missiles thrown and songs mocking the Munich air disaster.
Guardiola’s team have given themselves the chance of a hat-trick of League Cups after making it to the final, despite last night’s second-leg defeat courtesy of Nemanja Matic’s goal.
But the semi-final was marred by footage showing City fans making aeroplane gestures, which is seen as a reference to the 1958 air disaster in Germany involving Manchester United. There were also witness accounts of seats being ripped and thrown from the away end at the Etihad Stadium. City will now look at CCTV to see if action needs to be taken.
“I didn’t know about it, but I don’t like it,” said Guardiola. “When you talk about what happened, I didn’t know it, but that is not nice. Absolutely not.”
Guardiola also spoke out following the attack on the home of United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward on the eve of the semifinal, adding: “I don’t like what happened with Ed Woodward at home because this is football. You see the squad from United and it is really good. That is not the way to do that.”
Guardiola’s comments were echoed by United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. “I’m going to stand behind Pep there,” he said. “You know football is a game, it is a game we should all enjoy – spectators, those who want to watch on TV, those who play. I tell the players every time to go out with a smile and enjoy yourselves.
“Fans should always try to enjoy the games. Yes, we want rivalry, but let’s keep it at a sane level and let’s make sure we eradicate that. We want to make this a nice game.”
On the pitch, Solskjaer was proud that his team won on the night, making it two wins at the home of United’s rivals in consecutive months after beating them in the Premier League.
However, he was also unhappy that Matic was sent off for two bookings after scoring in the first half with a powerful volley.
“It’s hard to come here and score a goal with 11, never mind 10,” Solskjaer said. “It’s never a sending off. For me, a joke. It’s ironic, really, that he gets a yellow card for his first foul. It is ironic because it’s the
first time he has made a foul and he’s booked and the amount of times we broke and they brought us down.
“How many times did they foul us? How many times was Dan James fouled? How many times in the first half Jesse [Lingard]?
“It made it more difficult, but I want to talk about the players and the attitude they are showing – they have come here twice in six weeks and won. It’s difficult enough to do that in 10 years.”
Solskjaer is hoping to sign Bruno Fernandes today from Sporting Lisbon to bolster his midfield and hopes to land a striker before the deadline. He added: “The quality wasn’t great today, sometimes that happens, we need more goalscorers, more goals, someone who wants to break their nose or toe. It doesn’t have to be nice ones.
“I need to challenge them more, we can’t just score nice goals, especially today we pegged them back at times and stayed outside the box and defended, but we’re going to get there, these players will learn.”
Guardiola played with two rightbacks in a three-man defence and is assessing his injuries before facing Tottenham at the weekend.
“They are not completely fit – [Aymeric] Laporte, Fernandinho, [Benjamin] Mendy. We’ll see in the next days, I’m pretty sure they’ll be OK for West Ham, maybe not Tottenham.”