The fixture would have been the first Manchester derby to be played overseas.
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Pep Guardiola has brushed aside any possibility of not shaking Jose Mourinho’s hand when Manchester City play Manchester United in a friendly in Beijing today, with the City manager saying: “We are polite guys”.
“We know how much everyone was looking forward to the game, but we understand that this bad weather is beyond anyone’s control, and that the rain has made it totally unsafe to play on this pitch”. “But the most important thing for me is to take the players back home safely without any injuries”. So if you ask me my objective for the match tomorrow I only have one: take the players home safe without any kind of injury.
“We have a good group, we have a good spirit and we cope with it. Monday is the last day and then it is over”.
Following heavy rain in Beijing, Mourinho said: “I think Beijing is unlucky because the pitch is very bad”. Some of their squad who were not scheduled to play have done light training but City, who fly to Shenzhen on Tuesday for Thursday’s game against Borussia Dortmund, have not trained.
Jose Mourinho’s last clash with Pep Guardiola was in the UEFA Super Cup in 2013, which Guardiola’s Bayern Munich won against Mourinho’s Chelsea on penalties.
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 yesterday to the nearby Olympic Sports Center to protect the match pitch.
City lost their first pre-season game under Guardiola against his former side Bayern Munich, while Mourinho has picked up a win and a loss in his first two matches with United. “We have six, seven or eight, which played in the Euros”, he said. The biggest plot of the friendly is the reigniting of the rivalry between Guardiola and Mourinho.
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“City against United for me is at Old Trafford or at the Etihad or even the cup final at Wembley”, Mourinho said. Why not? Why shouldn’t I shake hands with him?
