Pep Guardiola has revealed he did not watch Sunday’s heavyweight clash between Manchester United and Liverpool – despite Man City going head-to-head with the Reds for the Premier League title.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side did City a favour at Old Trafford, ending Liverpool’s winning run to ensure they could not restore their gap over the Etihad club to eight points.
Instead, they remain only six points clear of the reigning champions, and with their 100 per cent record finally ended after nine matches.
But Guardiola was otherwise engaged while the match was on, revealing during his pre-Atalanta press conference that he did not watch proceedings at Old Trafford.
“I didn’t watch it,” said Guardiola. “This game with Atalanta is enough. Yesterday I was engaged in personal issues.”
City beat Crystal Palace on Saturday as they hunt for a third successive Premier League title, and they return to continental action tomorrow with the European Cup the club’s real dream.
And while Guardiola has faith in his team, he is well aware every game in the Champions League is going to be a challenge.
He continued: “I’m very confident, I have full trust in my team but there are a lot of strong teams.
“We’ve made mistakes we shouldn’t make at this level, for example in the match against Palace we created a lot of opportunities but scored very little, this is what I’m thinking.”
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Guardiola also discussed other topics during his press conference, and you can read the best bits, below…
“What I said about [Maurizio] Sarri I could say about Gasperini, I was lucky enough to meet him before. Having seen what Atalanta did last year and what they’re doing this season is incredible.
“It’s a great joy to watch his team play; they’re brave and they respect their supporters. The way they play is unusual, they take quite a few risks.”
“His physical condition is his biggest quality. He needs to train and train for months and months. When that happens we’ll see the best Mendy possible.”
“In this competition you have to be strong in the boxes and this season we’re not incredibly strong in the boxes. Tomorrow we have the chance to improve. We need six more points to qualify.”
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“This is a fight that must be fought every day. It’s a cultural problem, an attitude problem, it happens in English, Spanish and Italian stadiums.
“It’s a culture that must be embedded in children very young. It’s a fight we all have to fight.”
“In the smaller spaces Sergio is unstoppable, but Gabriel had played with Brazil so he was sharper [to play against Crystal Palace].
“Sergio is unique in the world, Gabriel is the best striker in high intensity pressing in the world. It’s specific qualities. Normally if you play with two strikers they would play quite regularly.”
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