Pep Guardiola has taken a swipe at the Eurovision Song Contest as he believes scheduling could impact Manchester City’s chances of achieving the Treble this season.
City are due to play Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League this Sunday — a matchday which has been scheduled to avoid the Eurovision final taking place in Liverpool.
It’s been said that there aren’t enough Merseyside Police to cover both events, so Eurovision will take place on Saturday, 13 May while City will face the Toffees away on Sunday, 14 instead.
However, this means that Guardiola’s men have a day less than Real Madrid to prepare for their upcoming Champions League clash.
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Carlo Ancelotti’s La Liga side are due to host 18th-place Getafe at Santiago Bernabeu tomorrow (Saturday, 13 May) meaning they have the advantage going into the second semi-final leg.
In a recent press conference, Guardiola aired his frustrations with Eurovision taking precedence over the Premier League.
He said: “I don’t want to be distracted by Real because we have time - not much time because we play Sunday, thank you so much… but the Goodison Park game is a priority.
“I don’t understand it but I don’t want a fight on that any more. I don’t understand but we have to adapt it, so it doesn’t matter.
“We don’t fight on the schedule from the Premier League, UEFA and so on. How many times can I comment on that? I’m pretty sure that La Liga and the Premier League want to help teams, I don’t think they want to make us uncomfortable.’
“It is the schedule with this amount of games that is the problem. We couldn’t play on Saturday because of Eurovision in Liverpool and we don’t have enough police to do two events at the same time.”
Guardiola then admitted that he wishes the Everton game could take place on Saturday, rather than Sunday.
He said: “So okay, we have to adapt. What can I do? We’d prefer to play Saturday to prepare more, definitely. But it is what it is. I don’t fight anymore over the schedules — UEFA or the Premier League.
“Here, the Premier League is more important and the schedule is the schedule.”
However, the head coach then cast a more positive eye over the scheduling situation and said: “So we prepare this way — one less day for Madrid, but one more for the Premier League and that’s good.”
Manchester City play Everton on Sunday 14 May, before hosting Real Madrid at home in the Champions League on Wednesday, 17 May.
Topics: Pep Guardiola, Manchester City, Champions League, Premier League, Football
Ella Scott