Pep Guardiola pushed aside any suggestion he would not shake hands with arch-rival Jose Mourinho and insisted all would be friendly when Manchester City play Manchester United in Beijing on Monday.
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Doubts over the state of the Bird’s Nest Stadium turf for the friendly against City after days of heavy rain meant a hasty switch of training venues Sunday to the nearby Olympic Sports Centre to protect the match pitch.
Jose Mourinho: “We are unlucky because the pitch is very bad. I have only one goal from tomorrow’s match, take the players home safe”.
It was a hotly anticipated clash, not least because of Mourinho and Guardiola’s volatile history in their previous clashes as Real Madrid and Barcelona bosses, respectively.
“Due to recent weather events, tournament organizers & participating clubs have chose to cancel tonight’s International Champions Cup game”, Manchester United said on its official twitter account.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Mourinho said: “Of course I will shake his hand”.
“We worked together in Barcelona for three years, we were opponents in other clubs but we are just professionals and we have a normal relationship”.
“We move on to Shenzhen, and I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to get some good game-time in and obviously see our fans over there”.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola downplayed Monday’s renewal of hostilities with Jose Mourinho, scoffing at the suggestion he would not shake his Manchester United counterpart’s hand. I want to win.
After a 4-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund on Friday, and now the hard weather conditions in Beijing, United’s trip to China has not been ideal preparation for the upcoming Premier League campaign.
“I just wish there are no problems in the match and everyone goes home without injuries”. We tried to fly to Beijing but the weather is a little bit bad so we had to land somewhere else. “They had a smile on their faces, which is good”.
Since taking over Manchester City and Manchester United in the summer the English press has looked to amp up their rivalry, even though both have looked to downplay it.
Mourinho admitted he can not wait to get back to Manchester and begin training with his full complement of players.
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“If we’re patient, like Chinese people are, then good things will come around again and we’ll be here again”.
