Pep Guardiola says 'everyone in this country supports Liverpool' after Manchester City win, Ruben Dias season over
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Updated 08/05/2022 at 22:54 GMT
Manchester City suffered heartbreak in midweek as they were beaten by Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League, but they came up with the perfect response in the Premier League as they beat Newcastle 5-0 to move a step closer to winning the title. Pep Guardiola said afterwards he thinks most people want Liverpool to win the league and that is "normal".
Guardiola hails ‘perfect afternoon’ against Newcastle as Man City take charge in title race
Pep Guardiola has claimed "everyone in this country supports Liverpool" after Manchester City took a big step towards winning the Premier League with victory over Newcastle, in a game that saw Ruben Dias suffer a season-ending injury.
City put their midweek Champions League heartbreak against Real Madrid behind them with a crushing 5-0 win at the Etihad.
They are now three points ahead of Liverpool, who drew with Tottenham on Saturday evening.
Asked by beIN Sports about how close City are now to the title, Guardiola said: "One week ago, nobody even...everyone in this country supports Liverpool, the media and everyone.
"Of course, because Liverpool has an incredible history in Europe, not in [the] Premier League, because they’ve only won one in 30 years, but it’s not a problem at all. The situation is what it is.
"We have to do nine points, maybe six right now, it depends on goal difference. Our destiny is in our hands, that’s important.”
Pressed whether he really believed everyone in the country wants Liverpool to win the league, Guardiola replied: "Liverpool alongside United is the most important teams in terms of legacy, history, dramas.
"But we have in the last 11-12 years always been there. I know we are sometimes uncomfortable, but I don’t care. If the people want Liverpool more [to] win than us, it’s not the issue. It’s normal.
"Maybe supporters around the world support more Liverpool than us, but this is not the question.
"The question is, today, during the start of the game, the people supporting us more than ever won the home game. They know that even being out of the Champions League, we can rely on these players. Hopefully we can arrive at the last game here with the chance to be champions.”
Guardiola also said he never doubted his side would bounce back from their defeat to Real Madrid, having been on the cusp of making the final before a remarkable late turnaround.
"With what this team have done, do you have any doubt?” he told Sky Sports.
"We are five years doing this every three days. If some people doubted us they don't know this team. It's one of the best groups I ever trained in my life.
"Three points, nine points to play for, four ahead on goal difference. Another final on Wednesday.”
Raheem Sterling scored twice for City while Aymeric Laporte, Phil Foden and Rodri also netted.
The only negative for City was defender Ruben Dias going off at half-time with injury.
Guardiola says Dias is likely to miss the last three games of the season on account of a hamstring injury, along with Kyle Walker and John Stones.
"We have 15.5 players because Nathan [Ake] is not in perfect condition,” said Guardiola.
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Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring for Manchester City
Image credit: Getty Images
“I'm not worried because if Phil Foden has to play as central defender, he will play there.
“Ruben, Kyle and John are out until the end of the season. Next pre-season maybe they will be ready.
“[Ruben’s problem is] muscular. Not the same position, but hamstring.”
On the importance of scoring two late goals to improve City’s goal difference, which is now four better than Liverpool’s, Guardiola added: “We talked about that at half-time - the importance of the win. It could have been 3-1 and after we scored two goals at the end. There's a big difference."
Jack Grealish produced an impressive showing after missing two chances to score against Real in midweek.
The 26-year-old, who revealed before the game that he has found it a challenge at City since his £100m move from Aston Villa, said: "We knew there'd be pressure on us today after the defeat, we bounced back perfectly. We've stuck together which was needed.
"We'll try to end the season strongly and we did that today.
"Newcastle have been brilliant since January. Today was a perfect response and a perfect performance.
"We just have to go out there and win every game. We're in the driving seat. We can't look at what's going on around us. Fingers crossed.”
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