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.
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The final match of their China tour is first Manchester derby outside the United Kingdom against City on Monday and Mourinho suggested he couldn’t wait for it to be over. Their plane also was apparently “lost” in Tianjin, 70 miles away from Beijing as severe weather prevented the plane from landing in the Chinese capital.
“The physio says he is ready but he needs to show that he can play one week, then one week more, to play regularly”, said Guardiola.
“The second group was unlucky as they had a storm and had to land somewhere else for a couple of hours”.
Both clubs were not happy with the Bird’s Nest stadium’s surface in the run up to the game and switched their pre-match sessions to different venues in an attempt to preserve the pitch for matchday.
Flooding is not uncommon during the summer monsoon season in northern China, but rains have been unusually heavy across the country this summer.
The joint decision aims to ensure the safety of players and fans, according to Tencent Sports. Mourinho’s scheduled press conference was called off when too many people tried to pack into the press room which became overheated.
The development topped off a pre-season trip for United that ended chaotically, with organisation as bad as the weather meaning Mourinho just wants to get his players home in one piece.
City now fly to Shenzhen for another ICC Cup match with German side Borussia Dortmund while United will fly back to England.
When asked if he would shake hands with Mourinho he said, We are polite guys – why not? “So why shouldn’t we shake hands?”
“I worked with him for three years at Barcelona”. Why not? Why should he not shake my hand?
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“We feel very disappointed with the outcome, and have tried our absolute best to save the event following recent extreme rain in Beijing”.
