Friday, May 3News That Matters

Guardiola aims swipe at De Gea as Man City finally win Champions League

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola took a clear swipe at Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea before his club’s Champions League final win against Inter Milan.

Rodri’s second half goal ensured Cityzens were crowned champions of Europe for the first time, and they won the treble in doing so.




Inter Milan gave Man City a tough test, with the Italian club proving resolute in defence and also dangerous from set-pieces.

It was a tighter clash than many predicted and closer than the FA Cup final last weekend, which saw City dominate Manchester United.

De Gea was to blame for Gundogan’s second goal at Wembley and his kicking was once again underwhelming.

The Spanish star struggled with his distribution, which allowed City to adopt a high press and keep the Red Devils penned in their own half.

That was in contrast to Andre Onana’s distribution in the final, with the Inter shot-stopper finding clever ways past City’s press.

Speaking about the threat of Onana before the final, Guardiola said that wasn’t the case against Man United last week as De Gea kept ‘going long’.

‘The back five [for Inter] are wide, when you make a switch of play it’s more difficult to get it, with five it’s more difficult,’ said Guardiola.

‘Inter is not just the strikers and five at the back – the keeper for a long time we didn’t see something like this with Onana

‘It’s difficult when you have that keeper to high press properly. If you are man-to-man they link to the striker with [Romelu] Lukaku, Lautaro [Martinez] and [Edin] Dzeko, they are masters of keeping the ball.

‘With United, for example, it’s long ball, with Rashford and the other one, they don’t keep it. ‘These guys [Inter] they keep it. And after they link it they run. That’s why you’ve got to think about what to do.

‘With the ball, wow, they [Inter] are really, really, really good, that is why they are in the Champions League final.’

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