Pep Guardiola confirms Fernandinho to miss 'four to six week's with leg injury
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Updated 21/10/2020 at 23:13 GMT
Manchester City opened their 2020/21 Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win over Porto, but the victory came at a cost. Fernandinho was withdrawn with a leg injury after 84 minutes and now looks set to miss at least a month of action. Aside from the injury, Pep Guardiola had praise for the patience shown by his team.
Fernandinho of Manchester City is embraced by Pep Guardiola
Image credit: Getty Images
Pep Guardiola confirmed Fernandinho faces several weeks on the sidelines after picking up a leg injury in Manchester City’s comeback victory over Porto.
City opened their 2020/21 Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win over the Portuguese visitors to the Etihad Stadium as Sergio Aguero, Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres all found the net to cancel out Luis Diaz’s opener.
The win did, however, come at a significant cost, with Fernandinho withdrawn through injury on the 84th minute mark and Guardiola confirmed afterwards that the Brazilian will be missing for at least a month.
Bad news, his leg will be, I think four to six weeks out
"Yes it is a big blow for us with these amount of games and no people there, but it is what it is,” the Manchester City boss told reporters.
The injury to Fernandinho aside, Guardiola was pleased with the night’s work for City, highlighting the role played by the substitutes coming off the bench in the second half.
“The last 10-15 minutes of the first half and the start of the second we played well,” he told BT Sport. “This is a good start for us and the next step we go to France to get the second one.
"At set pieces they were strong. By the second half we didn't concede anything set pieces or counter attacks so we controlled the game. Here, the Champions League is an opportunity to play five substitutions and the ones that came on made an incredible contribution. We had decided before the goal [to substitute Gundogan] but he scored an incredible goal.”
It took the Premier League side until the second half to truly find their groove, but Guardiola voiced his satisfaction at the patience shown in breaking down Porto.
“Teams that set up with lots back you have to wait for your moment,” he said. “We adjusted a little something at the end of the first half. We spoke about being patient, we had to be patient and at the right moment attack them, so we let them run.”
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