Pep Guardiola prefers Manchester City fixture congestion to Liverpool’s FA Cup exit
Liverpool’s FA Cup exit reduces their fixture list but Pep Guardiola would rather Manchester City are „in all four competitions as far as possible“.
City play Burton Albion in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports, in the first of three cup fixtures this month, alongside three more Premier League games.
Liverpool, already out of the league cup, will play just three more fixtures in January, all in the Premier League.
„I don’t know [if fewer games gives Liverpool an advantage] – I don’t have a theory from my experience about that,“ Guardiola said.
„If everyone is fit and not injured we can cope with it. The problem is if you have 10 injured players, then it’s almost impossible.
„I prefer it [being involved in four competitions], definitely. I like to be in the four competitions as far as possible. When Wigan put us out of the FA Cup last season I was sad. I take the cups seriously.
„I’m not involved in what my opponents do. The reality for Jurgen [Klopp] is he knows exactly what happened.
„Of course you need a big squad – without quality you can’t even win one trophy. With the quality and amount of players we have, you can do it, because the team is always stable.“
City reduced the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool to just four points after beating Klopp’s side at the Etihad last week.
But Guardiola laughed off suggestions on social media that City had instructed their groundstaff to let the grass grow longer than normal to disrupt the pace of Liverpool’s attacking trio, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
„I never did, if Liverpool want to play quick, we want to play quicker, so never we manipulated,“ he said. „Normally when this kind of thing happens, always at the end, karma or something like that, punishes you.
„I trust the greenkeepers, but we put the grass in the best conditions for both teams. Never I made a phone call to one to say, ‘Do this kind of thing to damage our opponents’.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.
