Pep Guardiola hit out at former Juventus defender Patrice Evra for his criticism of Manchester City’s Champions League exit to Real Madrid.
Evra was a pundit alongside ex-Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf for coverage of the match on Amazon Prime Sport Italia.
City, leading 1-0, conceded two stoppage-time goals to eventually lose the match 3-1 in extra-time and were eliminated, leading the ex-France defender to question City’s character.
And Guardiola was quick remind Evra, as well as former Manchester United team-mate Dimitar Berbatov who had also been critical of City, of the humbling Barcelona gave the pair in 2011 Champions League final when the Spaniard was manager of the Catalan sidew.
“Specialist former players like [Dimitar] Berbatov and [Clarence] Seedorf, Patrice Evra and these type of people, they weren’t there [in Madrid],” Guardiola said at a press conference on Friday.
“I played against them and when I played against them I didn’t see this kind of personality when we [Barcelona] destroyed them in the Champions League final against United. It’s the same character and personality.
“We don’t have personality because we concede two goals in two minutes when we had two chances to score and we don’t have personality? After the last four games we score 22 goals we have incredible personality. I’m sorry but I completely disagree about this.”
Evra was a starter for the United side which were beaten 3-1 by Barca at Wembley in a breathtaking display by the Catalans.
Berbatov was also part of that United team but was not named in the squad for the match.
Evra left United three years later to join Juve, where he was again beaten 3-1 by Barcelona in the Champions League final in 2015.
Seedorf made four appearances against Guardiola’s Barcelona – all in 2011-12 Champions League: two in the group stage and both quarter-final legs with the Catalans winning twice and the other matches ending in draws.
Sorry Pep but at 900+ mill spend, City should do more. Conceding more than you score in a game is how you lose. Maybe tikitaka was not his tactics but just the brilliance of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta.
@NOrata
yes, he already admitted that in some interview because of those players
There probably isn’t any team in Europe that wouldn’t take the opportunity to have Pep as their manager. But it’s also true that at Barcelona ‘the stars aligned’ in his tactics and those who were able to execute them. And it was all so new back then. These days what a team achieves in the CL is the barometer of success and Pep is still not achieving relative to resources.
What absolute nonsense comments above.