Pep Guardiola was seen fuming on the sidelines after Dominic Solanke scored Tottenham Hotspur’s first goal in their 2-2 draw with his Manchester City side because of a refereeing decision.
Guardiola had earlier watched his side dominate the first half with brilliant attacking plays, which led to them scoring two goals to go into the break. It was the first time in three away Premier League games this season that they had scored a goal, and things looked to be on the path to normalcy.
However, Spurs pulled one back a few minutes after the second half started, which Guardiola claims was responsible for his side only taking a point home despite being on track for all three.
The Spurs striker appeared to kick through Marc Guéhi although VAR ratified the goal after a check.
“If a central defender does that to a striker, this is a penalty, right?” Guardiola stated. “And after that, the second half we can extend, you know, 10, 15 minutes and get the control, the situation is a little bit easy, but the moment starts to put one there, they won the second balls.
“And after that they create the momentum, and after a goal, you have perhaps another 10 or 15 minutes. This is normal, 2-0 down, nothing to lose with the energy of this crowd that they have, the physicality they have. We missed the actions one versus one with full-backs where people up front were not able to capitalise these actions, but, in general the game was well played.”
Guardiola then added that it can be difficult to stop momentum in the Premier League, the kind which Spurs found after Solanke’s first goal of the afternoon.
“What happened in the Premier League today, sometimes you can control it, but the way the game is in England, this happens sometimes,” he said. We know all of the time we cannot control all of the game – sometimes it’s easier if it’s 0-3, 0-4.”
“But you have a lot of new players and over actions. We have to try to finish the actions a little bit better, but the game was well played. We would prefer not to have that transition, but it was an emotional issue for their first goal and after that, the moment is difficult to control in England.”