Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, is never hesitant to express his admiration for opposition players, even those who don the scarlet of Manchester United.
Guardiola found the opportunity to contact Lisandro Martinez, one of the world’s “top five” center-halves, despite the disappointment of losing the FA Cup final last season.
In the spring, before Man City recovered from Marcus Rashford’s barnstorming opening to win 3-1 at the Etihad, the Spaniard also extolled the boundless creativity of Bruno Fernandes.
According to him, the Manchester United captain is “one of the best I have ever seen” at cutting open the backlines of his opponents.
This time, Fernandes accounted for only 33% of Guardiola’s commendation. The Portugal playmaker, who was denied a truly spectacular goal by the offside flag, played a significant role in reversing the tide in Man United’s favor during the third Wembley match between the two adversaries in the past 15 months.
Rashford and the effervescent Alejandro Garnacho were granted the opportunity to exploit their impressive pace by darting in behind, with Fernandes in his false nine role.
A relationship that is expected to progress only when Joshua Zirkzee is the leader.
Manchester United is defeated by Manchester City on penalties at Wembley Stadium.
Guardiola acknowledges that his Manchester City team encountered difficulty in accommodating United’s rapid-fire counterattacks. Before Garnacho followed up his FA Cup opener with a magnificent solo effort back at the national stadium, only the post denied Rashford.
At the conclusion of the match, Guardiola told ITV Sport, “We lost a significant number of balls, and they are one of the best teams in the world in transition.” “With the connection with Bruno, with Rashford, and with Garnacho at the end.”
“They are exceedingly unsafe to manage.” However, in the end, we were able to achieve parity through a positive action. “And, we achieved it in the penalties.”
