03/10/2025

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FRIDAY | OCT 3, 2025

Malaysian Paper

P EP GUARDIOLA refused to be drawn on Monaco’s controversial late penalty after seeing his Manchester City side pegged back in a 2-2 Champions League draw against Monaco. Former Tottenham defender Eric Dier scored from the spot in the 90th minute after taking a boot in the face from Nico Gonzalez as the pair stretched to reach a freekick. Replays showed Gonzalez got the ball first but, having also caught Dier, he and City were in trou ble once referee Jesus Gil Manzano went to con sult the pitchside monitor. Asked if he would give his opinion of the inci dent, Guardiola said: “No. I have nothing to say to the Spanish referees.” There were ugly scenes as the referee was try ing to watch the replay. City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma raced to the bench to speak to his coaches ahead of the anticipated spotkick, but took the ball with him and Monaco’s players ran after him. In the resulting melee at least one Monaco coach was sent off, with City captain Bernardo Silva booked on his return to his former club. Guardiola’s bigger frustration will have been his side’s inability to kill off Monaco, having twice led through goals from Erling Haaland, who marked his 50th Champions L e a g u e appear ance with a brace that took Lost for words

Man City manager Pep Guardiola. – AFPPIC

‘Unfinished business’

Guardiola has ‘nothing to say’ about Monaco’s late penalty against City

- Story on page 28

break and pointed the finger at himself for not kill ing the game off. “I still think I’m involved in the game by doing movements and creating space for others. “So it’s not only if you’re having touches that you’re involved in the game or not. I think you can be involved many other ways, and that’s my job; I did my job in the first half, second half I didn’t.” Rodri started the game having missed Saturday’s 5-1 win over Burnley after feeling pain in his right knee, in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament to miss most of last season. The Spain midfielder

his tally to 52 in the competition. Phil Foden struck the crossbar in the first half and Tijjani Reijnders did likewise in the second as a decisive third goal would not come. “In football you have to win with the result,” Guardiola said. “If you analyse the game there were many things that were really good. “Step by step we will be better but we had many chances. Phil in the first half and many players played really good. “We conceded almost nothing. We created chances, they defended so deep and tight, that it wasn’t expecting for the way they play but we adjusted and we played really good. When it’s close, you have to defend and we take the point.” Speaking to TNT Sports after the match, Haaland added: “We don’t feel good. We don’t win. We did something unnecessary in the second half, and we didn’t play good enough, so we don’t deserve to win. “We need more energy, we

Arteta hails squad depth

was involved in a collision just before the hour and went down holding that knee, playing only a few more minutes before he was replaced by Gonzalez.

- Story on page 30

Guardiola said there was no injury concern and that the deci sion was tactical, describing Rodri’s con dition

needed to get at them more as we did in the first half when we dominated much more. “In the second half, they took the lead much more and I don’t think it’s good enough.” Pretty much every thing Haaland

touched turned to gold in the first half but the striker struggled to get involved after the

a s “perfect”. Dier’s pena l t y was his sec ond goal since joining Monaco in the summer from Bayern Munich and coach Adi Hutter admitted it

BAM knows best: Kok Keong

Man City’s Erling Haaland (right) scores his team’s first goal during the Champions League match against Monaco yesterday. – AFPPIC

might have surprised Donnarumma to see the former England defender step up to take it after Ansu Fati, ahead of him in the pecking order, had been replaced. “Eric took responsibility for the situa tion and did it really well and I was happy for him,” he said. “In our history over the last three years we were not the best in penalties. We missed so many. “In practice I saw Eric is a safe kicker and also with his age, his experience, that was the situation to kick and he did it fantastically.” – The Independent/Express Newspapers

- Story on page 31

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