Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola attends a press conference for 2016 International Champions Cup match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Olympic Sports Center Stadium on July 24, 2016 in Beijing, China.
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“It has been really bad”, said International Champions Cup China spokesman Ben Xiaozheng. Guardiola said yesterday when asked if the pair would extend hands, despite an acrimonious rivalry which stretches back to 2010 when the Catalan had stewardship of Barcelona and Mourinho took the reins at Real Madrid.
The preseason clash between Manchester United and Manchester City has been cancelled after heavy downpours last night left the pitch unplayable. “I don’t see the reason for the question”.
City skipper Kompany, who would not have played against United because he is recovering from injury, said: ‘It’s sad for us, it’s sad for our fans.
“I saw United’s game against (Borussia) Dortmund (a 4-1 defeat in Shanghai on Friday) and that’s all”.
“It’s too early to know how they will be. Of course with this manager and with the good players they already had – and I am sure they will buy new players – they will be a strong team”. The problem for me are the bad conditions to play and train. We’re going to start to move forward like we talked in the beginning.
The 35-year-old feels pre-season preparations have gone well so far, with an opportunity for some important bonding with the new manager, coaching staff and players.
‘We had our groundsman working for 10 days on the pitch, but the conditions were just too unsafe for the players.
The pitches are not of the best quality, making easy for players not at their fittest to get injuries with the Red Devil’s Premier League opener against Bournemouth inching closer. For the safety of players as well as the spectators, the three parties chose to cancel the friendly.
And a plane carrying some of the players had to make an unscheduled stop in Tianjin, around 160km from Beijing, as storms hit the Chinese capital. We tried to fly to Beijing but the weather is a little bit bad so we had to land somewhere else. The plane was not good.
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“They then arrived at the hotel for dinner at 1am”.
