Pep Guardiola has revealed that one Manchester City player was unhappy with him during last night’s match against Real Madrid.
For their first-leg quarter-final tie against the Spanish club at the Santiago Bernabeu, the Citizens walked away with a 3-3 draw, setting up another mouth-watering second-leg clash between the two sides at the Etihad Stadium next week.
After last night’s game in the Spanish capital, the City boss spoke openly about one of his players and his reaction to being taken off the pitch.
Guardiola says Man City player was ‘grumpy’ after Real Madrid clash
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game in Madrid, Guardiola had this to say when asked about Phil Foden and why he was substituted off in the second half.
He said: “It was a knock. He was grumpy with me because I made a substitution but he made another fantastic goal.”
The Englishman completed 87 minutes against Carlo Ancelotti’s side before being taken off after a suffering a nasty-looking challenge from Eduardo Camavinga.
During his time on the pitch, Foden scored City’s second goal to get them back on level terms after they found themselves 2-1 down just a few minutes after taking the lead in the early stages through Bernardo Silva.
Why Phil Foden was taken off against Real Madrid
Even though the 23-year-old was caught on the back of his foot by Camavinga and had to hobble off the pitch, the fact that he was grumpy by Guardiola’s decision to take him off shows just how eager he is to contribute as much as he can to the team and help them win.
However, from Guardiola’s point of view, it seemed, to us, to be the right thing to do rather than keep him on and risk aggravating a potential injury blow that may have kept him sidelined in what is a crucial period of the season.
Also speaking after the game, the 23-year-old said that he had a “bad dead leg,” but was hopeful that the recovery time ahead of him will fix it before the second-leg tie against Real.