Pep Guardiola gave his Manchester City players a rollicking after their 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over fierce rivals United as he felt they should have won by at least six goals.
City were utterly dominant in the opening 45 minutes of the semi-final tie at Old Trafford and went into the interval with a three-goal lead, though it could have easily been more.
But Guardiola’s side were in cruise-control for much of the second period, allowing United to scrape their way back into the tie with Marcus Rashford reducing the deficit to two ahead of the second leg at the Etihad.
According to The Sun, the City boss felt his players let United off the hook and believes they could have easily won the match by six goals and killed off any chance of a turnaround.
He did however reserve some praise for individual performances, presumably Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez, but overall was displeased with the team’s ruthlessness in front of goal.
Guardiola is known for his relentless pursuit for perfection and this just highlights how high his standards are.
Rashford’s well-taken goal will give United a glimmer of hope of reaching the final ahead of their trip to City in little over two weeks’ time.
Although the score somewhat masks the story of the match, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was relatively happy with how his side responded after a dismal first half.
However, United came in for a lot of criticism for their performance on Tuesday night with Micah Richards accusing them of lacking heart.
‘Put in a tackle. If things are not going right, especially in a derby,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘When we used to play, we were the underdogs. We knew if we got in your faces we would make it hard for you.
‘It is almost like when City went two, three up, they gave up a little bit
‘There was no fight, there was no grit. No player was going round putting in a tackle and respecting how good a team City are.
‘City, even when United won at the Etihad, City still had a lot of the ball but United were cuter in how they set up. Today it was like we beat City before, we can do it again and they got away from the basics that made them win the last game. They were a bit naive.’
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