Pep Guardiola reveals that Manchester City were wedded to taking Kyle Walker off at half-time regardless of the score. With premier league matches in mind, City always planned to swap Walker for Cancelo to share the minutes out and didn’t deviate from the plan when they went in goalless at the break.
Pep Guardiola said: “We spoke about 45 minutes for Kyle and 45 minutes for Joao. It doesn’t matter the result, it is 45 and 45. They play a lot of minutes and I don’t want to put extra energy because we have a tough week ahead of us. I was really impressed with the games Crystal Palace played and Brugge is a final for us to qualify for the next round [of the Champions League].”