Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola lavished praise on Claudio Bravo after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Manchester United, despite the goalkeeper’s glaring error that led to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s goal. Though he was by no means the worst player on the pitch (hello Jesse Lingard), there was enough evidence to show today that despite the fanfare that greeted his arrival, Pogba is still some way from being the finished article. We had a few players below that level and we were made to pay.
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Jose Mourinho’s men were slow out of the blocks and found themselves 2-0 down thanks to efforts from Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho.
“But overall, it is a big compliment for the performance, because I know how hard it is to come here and play as we did, especially in the first half”.
The Belgian midfielder has been booked in successive games, receiving one yellow card for a robust challenge against Hull City then another one for a trailing arm against Manchester City.
The Portuguese believes the pressure of the occasion got to some of his players, with United’s poor first-half display compounded by two penalty appeals being rejected after the break.
“Kevin had an fantastic, awesome game”, Guardiola said.
“It’s not the first time I play against a Mourinho team”, he said.
Ibrahimovic added that he will do all he can to support Rashford, insisting: “I’ll help him every day, him and all the others, in any way I can”. “I didn’t expect the shot, I didn’t expect it to hit the post and come back, but I’m happy to be in the right place and to score”. In the future I am going to beat him and he will beat me. “Hopefully next time we play against United people will start to forget or ask less about our relationship”. When we see each we speak and sometimes we don’t agree about our opinions.
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“We have to focus on the next game now and be ready”.
