"A lot of thought"

Pep boils: “Impossible, unacceptable, not normal”

Someone was really charged up. After Manchester City's victory in the FA Cup, head coach Pep Guardiola vented his anger. Not about advancing to the final, but about the game plan. This was nothing less than "impossible, unacceptable and not normal".

What exactly made the Spaniard so angry? The fact that his team had to play in the Champions League on Wednesday - for 12 minutes plus a penalty shoot-out - and then again on Saturday. "It's unacceptable, it's not normal, it's not possible," Guardiola fumed in an interview with the BBC. It was "about the health of the players". He had thought about it a lot, but could not explain why his team was allowed to play on Saturday and not Sunday. "Then we would have an extra day to recover."

"They have destroyed us"
However, he doesn't really see a way out. Especially as there will be even more Champions League games on the schedule from next season. Not a rosy outlook. Especially when he compares the potential future with events from the past: "I've given it a lot of thought. I remember that two seasons ago we played Dortmund on Wednesday - and Liverpool on Saturday. They were 3-0 up at half-time. They destroyed us."

There was no question of destroying his team in the 90 minutes before (!) Pep's tantrum. On the contrary: Manchester City are just one step away from successfully defending their title in the English FA Cup. Pep's team won the semi-final against Chelsea at London's Wembley Stadium 1:0 thanks to a goal from Bernardo Silva in the 84th minute.

The team eliminated from the Champions League on Wednesday will face either second-tier Coventry or city rivals Manchester United in the final on Sunday.