London –
Pep Guardiola defend Zack Steffen which makes a blunder when facing Liverpool. He did not regret playing the goalkeeper from the United States.
Man City failed to advance to the final FA Cup. They were defeated by Liverpool 2-3 at Wembley, Saturday (16/4/2022) night WIB. The Citizens had to be left behind by three goals in the first half due to Ibrahima Konate’s nick and Sadio Mane’s brace.
They tried to rise after the break, however, Man City could only make two goals from Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva to fail to catch up.
Zack Steffen has been in the spotlight for this Man City defeat. The reason, he made a fatal blunder which resulted in the Reds’ second goal.
Steffen, who is believed to appear to replace the rested Ederson, was not good enough to build up. This allowed Sadio Mane to tackle the ball that was controlled by Steffen.
Mane’s tackle makes the ball go straight into the Manchester Blue goal. This goal made it difficult for Man City to get up after falling behind quickly due to Konate’s nick in the 9th minute.
However, Man City Manager, Pep Guardiola, did not want to blame Steffen for his team’s failure to advance to the final. Mistakes like that according to him can be made by anyone even their main goalkeeper Ederson.
Therefore, this man from Spain is completely sorry for giving his trust to play Steffen in this match. He emphasized that the goalkeeper from the United States deserved to play because he had been the first choice since the beginning of the FA Cup.
“I haven’t spoken to Zack. It was an accident but we need him to try to play that’s how our football is. It was an accident, it happened. Edi (Ederson) was also close in the last game,” Guardiola was quoted as saying by the Independent.
“We need that to play our football, we use our goalkeepers to move our opponents into different situations. I’m pretty sure Zack doesn’t want to do that. Sometimes strikers fail in front of the goalkeeper, sometimes goalkeepers make mistakes. It was a decision (to play him) since a few days ago. It’s not fair when you play the cup and you don’t play it.”
(pur/krs)
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