Both managers will be without their main squad players but it should still be an entertaining affair.
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“Their training schedule has been disrupted because of the rain, meaning the venue for their pre-match session had to be switched from the Bird’s Nest to the Olympic Sports Centre in order to protect the pitch they will play Manchester City on on Monday”.
Asked what he wanted from the game, Guardiola said: “No injuries”.
Ahead of their ICC meeting with Man City in Beijing, Jose Mourinho says his only objective is to take his players home without injury. “Of course I’ll shake his hand”, Mourinho said.
Guardiola and Mourinho had two seasons in direct competition with each other in Spain, between 2010 and 2012.
Mourinho takes charge of a United side that has not won the league since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, with Louis van Gaal’s fourth-place finish in 2014-15 their best since.
Jose Mourinho has bemoaned the impossible situation United find themselves in due to Europa league football, believing it’ll affect their chances of winning the English Premier League.
“City against United for me is at Old Trafford or at the Etihad or even the cup final at Wembley”.
“I saw the last game against Borussia Dortmund (when United lost 4-1) and that’s all (apart from) a little bit against Wigan”.
United are due to train in the Chinese capital today and Mourinho has a press conference to attend, but the unexpected travel delay has thrown those plans into doubt.
Since taking on their respective Manchester football giants, each manager has insisted they will not concentrate on each other too much.
While City is looking strong, they’ve only played 1 preseason match and they’re now functioning with a makeshift defensive line featuring Aleksandar Kolarov in the centre of defence.
The team were flying out of Shanghai on to Beijing following yesterday’s heavy defeat, but bad weather meant they had to land at an airport on the way.
This will be the first Manchester Derby that will be played overseas.
“The pitch is very bad and the condition of my players is more important than results”.
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Guardiola also spoke about the fitness of his captain Vincent Kompany.”The most important thing is for Vincent to get fit – if it’s for Sunderland. ideal”.
