Pep Guardiola insists Raul Jimenez can have no complaints about his bizarre red card in Wolves’ defeat to Manchester City. Mexican striker Jimenez saw red shortly before half-time after collecting two yellow cards in the space of 30 seconds.
Pep Guardiola said: “The first yellow card to Jimenez is the same (as) we conceded for Rodri and Ruben (Dias) against Adama (Traore).”
City’s winner arrived in controversial circumstances in the 66th minute after referee Jonathan Moss adjudged Joao Moutinho had handled Bernardo Silva’s cross. VAR inspected the incident and upheld Moss’s decision, despite replays suggesting the ball struck Moutinho under the arm. Guardiola hadn’t been able to watch the incident back in time for his post-match press conference.
Pep Guardiola said: “The penalty, I saw it on the field, I haven’t seen it on the TV. People say it’s harsh, but I haven’t seen it.”
Despite his team securing three points contentiously, Guardiola believes City were worthy winners against a Wolves team he claims ‘didn’t want to play’.
Pep Guardiola added: “We were much better against 11 than 10 players. It’s so difficult to play against a team like this who doesn’t want to play. Eight players, plus Adama and Jimenez, dropped and closed the spaces in the middle. They are so good at defending, because of the work Nuno did at Wolves. They had lost just two in 10 games, now three, so we knew how tough it was going to be. We didn’t lose our patience. We were patient all the time. They want to distract you and with one counter-attack with Adama Traore and the other players, they can punish you. It’s happened in the past against that team. We were not so clever in the final third. Some players dropped a little bit in their performance. It was a good result for us. We conceded one chance in 93, 94 minutes.”
