MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said an extra day in preparation for their Champions League clash at Juventus allowed his squad to recover from their defeat to Crystal Palace.
City were held to a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park on Saturday – a result that further dented their Premier League title defence – with Guardiola’s side missing several key players to injury including Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, John Stones and Phil Foden.
Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake are among the latest to join City’s injury list after the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last week.
“We have started studying (the Juventus game) and are very lucky not to play on Tuesday, we play on Wednesday so we have more than a day for the players to recover,” said Guardiola.
According to Guardiola, the medical team is working hard to prepare the players.
“No need for sympathy, accept the challenge and maybe in the end we will be satisfied with the way we handled it compared to other seasons when we won the championship,” he said.
City lost 4-1 to Sporting and drew 3-3 with Feyenoord in their last two Champions League games.