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Man City 1-0 Chelsea: Pep Guardiola hits out at schedule after FA Cup semi-final win

By Neil JohnstonBBC Sport at Wembley

Last updated on .From the section Man Citycomments1732

Man City 1-0 Chelsea: 'It's not acceptable' - Guardiola on Man City's fixtures

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says it is "unacceptable" that his side had to play an FA Cup semi-final so soon after a Champions League quarter-final.

City overcame Chelsea 1-0 to reach a second successive final but Guardiola criticised their schedule after the penalty shootout defeat by Real Madrid.

Guardiola said Coventry and Manchester United - who play on Sunday at Wembley - should have played on Saturday.

"I don't understand how we survived," added the City boss.

City lost on penalties to Real Madrid on Wednesday after the teams were locked 4-4 on aggregate after extra time.

Guardiola's argument is that the other FA Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Coventry, who are not in European competition, should have been switched to Saturday to allow his players an extra day to recover.

"It's unacceptable to let us play today," he told BBC Sport. "It's impossible, for the health of the players. It's not normal.

"One hundred and twenty minutes, the emotions of Madrid, the way we lose, honestly. I know this country is special [with the FA Cup] but it's for the health of the players."

Guardiola was animated after full-time on Saturday, hugging his players on the pitch and waving his arms in the air towards City's supporters.

Later, in his news conference, Guardiola continued with his criticism - describing the domestic and international calendar as "unsustainable".

City's next match is on Thursday, when they play at Brighton in the Premier League (20:00 BST).

"I just want to protect my players. It's common sense. I'm not asking for something special or privilege," Guardiola said.

Man City and Pep Guardiola in best position to cope with fixture list - Alan Shearer

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, whose team beat Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday after losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, agreed with Guardiola's comments.

"It's not about us, Pep or myself. It's about the wellbeing of the players," said Arteta, who was Guardiola's assistant at City before joining Arsenal in 2019.

"When you compete in European competition, every team has to compete in the same way.

"You cannot have a team that hasn't played for seven days, or three days before and has more recovery time, and then you have to play in the Premier League and the FA Cup. It is not right."

There are still set to be clashes between domestic competitions and Uefa matches when the 2024-25 fixture calendar is confirmed next month, despite FA Cup replays being scrapped.

The Premier League, Football Association and English Football League feel they have been left in an impossible situation, due to Uefa's decision to expand its three club competitions and the introduction of the new Fifa Club World Cup at the end of next season.

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1732 comments

  • Comment posted by john, at 21:15 20 Apr

    Try working 8 hours a day. Every day

    • Reply posted by Cerastes, at 21:19 20 Apr

      Cerastes replied:
      For 0.1% of what these players are paid.

  • Comment posted by eeciao, at 21:25 20 Apr

    Tomorrow tens of thousands of people will run a marathon having trained for months whilst holding down full time jobs. Meanwhile a cry baby wails that his overpaid bag of wind chasers can’t go to work twice in four days

    • Reply posted by cuckie, at 21:29 20 Apr

      cuckie replied:
      correct and for just over 3 hours what a whinger this bloke is.

  • Comment posted by Jim, at 21:26 20 Apr

    Easy fix, only European champions in the Champions league, and make the champions league knock out all the way. (SImilar for Europa)

    Thats a quick way to reduce fixture congestion.

    • Reply posted by The Flying Dutchman, at 21:41 20 Apr

      The Flying Dutchman replied:
      and will make things a lot more interesting

  • Comment posted by ledge13, at 21:13 20 Apr

    Maybe a slight point but if he really expects me show much sympathy for basically playing 210 mins of football over 3 days for 300k a week sorry none shown

    • Reply posted by Hank Scorpio, at 21:25 20 Apr

      Hank Scorpio replied:
      Arsenal are playing today in the premier league and played Wednesday night so it's not like his rivals are getting anything different. Liverpool had similar congestion issues year before last. If you go far into every competition you will play a lot of games.

  • Comment posted by whats all the fuss about, at 21:15 20 Apr

    Isn’t the point of spending billions of pounds to create massive squads so they can rotate and actually utilise their over-inflated squad?

    Instead, he has players away on loan like Cancelo and Phillips that cost in excess of £100 million.

    • Reply posted by You, at 21:35 20 Apr

      You replied:
      Cancel doesn’t want to be there, Phillips is garbage!!!

  • Comment posted by Leedsarentwe, at 21:28 20 Apr

    This bloke is such a pain in the you know what ? They’re playing football Pep, not doing a 12 hour factory shift. Get into the real world. By the way, nothing new with fixture pile up. In 1972, Leeds won the FA Cup on the Saturday & then had to play Wolves away, on the Monday night, for the title, which they lost. Grow up Pep, you & your players are multi millionaires from doing something you love

    • Reply posted by Bigpad, at 21:33 20 Apr

      Bigpad replied:
      I came on to make that point mate but you beat me to it. And we usually had to play on potato patches of pitches too.

  • Comment posted by Art, at 21:20 20 Apr

    Good job he is not managing at Truro who have just had 13 matches in 27 days especially as their home ground has to be temporarily in Gloucester. Different world

    • Reply posted by craig, at 21:52 20 Apr

      craig replied:
      Truro are top bananas 🍌

  • Comment posted by Mate, at 21:13 20 Apr

    Pep don't embarrass yourself, you have enough good players to field 2 teams, yet you moan yet again

    • Reply posted by teamspirit, at 21:16 20 Apr

      teamspirit replied:
      Wasn't it Fergie who said he had one set of players for the league and another for Europe ?

  • Comment posted by Mattyaceof, at 21:29 20 Apr

    Only unacceptable thing here is 115 charges that are being swept under the carpet and all the pundits know it but still praise them, 7 FA Cups bought by financial doping and all the other trophys they've won are just paid for by UAE FC

  • Comment posted by Jay74, at 21:13 20 Apr

    You have at least two quality players in every position. Use them. It’s called a squad.

    • Reply posted by Winners And Sinners, at 00:04 21 Apr

      Winners And Sinners replied:
      Funny how the guy with 2 first teams is the one crying about match schedules. Pull the other one, Pep!

  • Comment posted by Wibble, at 21:14 20 Apr

    It's not like he doesn't have a 25 man squad. A squad after all is meant to be utilised, but Pep plays the same guys week in, week out, hence why Rodri needed a game off. He's happy to bloat his squad with £60-100m players, but he's not happy enough to use them. No sympathy for him or City at all, they have the best squad in England, their 2nd string would get CL football all on their own.

    • Reply posted by Del, at 21:41 20 Apr

      Del replied:
      He does not have a 25 man squad.

  • Comment posted by HMS Hood, at 21:23 20 Apr

    I'd do it. I'm a bit old, fat and crap but I'd show up for 300k a week, no problem....

    • Reply posted by Leedsarentwe, at 21:30 20 Apr

      Leedsarentwe replied:
      I’ll be your number 2

  • Comment posted by jerz, at 21:31 20 Apr

    Make the European competitions straight knockout. Problem solved

    • Reply posted by Essex-Dave, at 21:41 20 Apr

      Essex-Dave replied:
      And only have the champions in the Champions League.

  • Comment posted by Novak Noprob, at 21:16 20 Apr

    Stop whingeing Pep....you have the biggest bank of £. You have the biggest and best squad because of this, probably enough to field 2 teams which would finish top 3.

    • Reply posted by whatdidyouexpect, at 21:18 20 Apr

      whatdidyouexpect replied:
      Name both XIs

  • Comment posted by John SC, at 21:08 20 Apr

    Will have more sympathy about arguments over players health when clubs like Man City spend pre-season in the UK or Europe.

    • Reply posted by soccerteur, at 21:15 20 Apr

      soccerteur replied:
      Why? It has zero to do with where you are when the season kicks off. Zero

  • Comment posted by Davie, at 21:25 20 Apr

    He's got enormous resources at his disposal & a large squad of exceptional players. He should try being the coach of Truro City FC who played 13 games in 28 days & who got relegated from National League South. He should button it & count his money.

    • Reply posted by nezza, at 21:30 20 Apr

      nezza replied:
      The manager of the largest 1st team squad (and most expensive) in history complains about playing too many games. No sympathy.

  • Comment posted by Richard, at 21:29 20 Apr

    I can think of 115 things to complain about. This isn’t one of them!

    • Reply posted by Mars Express, at 22:30 20 Apr

      Mars Express replied:
      115 cases of earning too much money.

  • Comment posted by The Cloud, at 21:13 20 Apr

    I'm sure the FA could have switched the two semis. It would have made more sense; but, hey, that's the price of success!
    There's still too much football - and the European competitions are only getting bigger which, as a result, the authorities in England have decided are more important than domestic competitions and, as a result, have decided to ditch FA Cup replays.

    • Reply posted by Artsol70, at 21:42 20 Apr

      Artsol70 replied:
      Pep is absolutely correct...the FA should do more in helping English clubs competing in europe as regards scheduling of games...the FA semis should have been switched to give City and extra day rested after the painful exit on wednesday...

  • Comment posted by Ben, at 21:44 20 Apr

    Managers don't get it. Winning multiple trophies is supposed to be hard. Players are supposed to be fatigued at this time of the season. It often leads to more mistakes and more exciting games. Fans don't care about a slightly higher risk of injuries, and we don't want to hear this constant whining from hugely privileged, vastly overpaid football managers and players. Get on with it and shut up.

    • Reply posted by Hansen, at 02:31 21 Apr

      Hansen replied:
      It’s an inconvenience to play in domestic cups for the foreign managers , they don’t and never will get it , what the Cup means to English football fans . Why are we entertaining their , the minority views. They field weaker teams usually anyway it’s a long season for a reason to test the best squads. Injuries don’t occur to lower league clubs Pep? Who pay as many matches to fund their survival

  • Comment posted by DaveC, at 21:24 20 Apr

    Use your squad of professional athletes then. Could understand a bit of moaning if they'd been away at Madrid but they could have all been tucked up in their own beds by midnight on Wednesday.

    • Reply posted by cb, at 07:43 21 Apr

      cb replied:
      Points raised here are fair, but elite athletes can't be at full throttle 3 times a week, being asked to sprint/run 30km a week and be at a top level over say 11 months of the year is nuts.
      How long do we want the best playing and do we want the best playing in the biggest games.
      Bin replays, international friendlies, summer tours, world club cup, community shield, euro confer, reduce World cup.

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