Guardiola blames Eurovision for Man City’s fixture congestion ahead of UCL semis
Pep Guardiola is fuming at the fact Eurovision has adversely effected his Manchester City side ahead of their upcoming run of fixtures – which includes welcoming Real Madrid to the Etihad in the Champions League.
Man City travel to face off against Everton this weekend at Goodison Park, in a game that will take place on Sunday afternoon.
However, with Guardiola and co having played Real Madrid on Tuesday night out in the Spanish capital, the City boss would have rather the game against the Toffees was played on Saturday, giving them an extra day to prepare for the Champions League.
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City will host Real Madrid at the Etihad on Wednesday next week, meaning they have just two days to get ready for their biggest game of the season.
With Eurovision set to take place in Liverpool this weekend on Saturday night, it would have been impossible for Man City and Everton to play their game then due to Merseyside Police being unable to provide staff for both events.
And of course, that has left Guardiola cursing his and Man City's luck at his recent Friday afternoon press conference.
"We play Sunday, thank you so much," Guardiola said sarcastically at his presser.
"I don't understand it, but I don't want to fight for that anymore. How many times can we comment on that? I don't understand it, but we have to adapt to it so… it doesn't matter, I don't fight the schedules: UEFA’s, Premier League's and so on.
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"We can't play Saturday because of Eurovision and we don’t have enough police to handle two important events at the same time. OK, we have to adapt. What can I do? We'd prefer to play Saturday so we can prepare more, definitely.
"I'm pretty sure the Premier League wants to help the teams in the Premier League – I don't think they [purposefully] make it uncomfortable. The problem is the schedule, the amount of competitions and games."
Against Real Madrid, Guardiola opted not to make a single substitution in the game that ended 1-1, possibly with the Everton game in mind.
The likes of Aymeric Laporte, Julian Alvarez, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden could all be handed starting berths against the Toffees with a win for Man City able to move them four points clear of Arsenal before their clash against Brighton later that day.
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