Mauricio Pochettino apologises to Pep Guardiola and referees for outburst at end of Chelsea match tonight
Mauricio Pochettino apologises to Pep Guardiola and referees for outburst at end of Chelsea match tonight.
Pep Guardiola says he is ‘completely fine’ with Mauricio Pochettino not shaking his hand after Manchester City’s epic draw at Chelsea.
The Citizens were held to a 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, with City academy graduate Cole Palmer scoring the equaling penalty in stoppage time.
Eight minutes were added on, with the referee letting the game run to 100 minutes due to the penalty incident.
But Pochettino appeared incensed that the game ended when it did, especially as the Blues had possession of the ball at the time and were looking to launch a final attack.
The Chelsea boss vented his fury at the officials as the full-time whistle blew, walking immediately onto the pitch before being calmed down by his coaching staff and proceeding to hug and shake hands with both sets of players.
He forgot to shake hands with Guardiola however, but the City manager holds no grudge against his rival, saying in his post-match press conference: ‘It’s not a problem. It’s fine.
‘The emotions happen to me sometimes. Completely fine. I don’t want to make a thing about it.’
For his part, Pochettino apologised both to Guardiola and the officials for his conduct at the full-time whistle.
‘I need to apologise to Anthony [Taylor] and the officials because in this moment I feel Raheem [Sterling] can go through and in this moment I say “What the…?”
‘I deserve to be booked, I apologise but this type of behaviour is no good. I want to apologise to him also [Pep], I was focused on the action.’
As well as his outburst at full-time, Pochettino was not impressed with VAR’s decision to award City a penalty after Erling Haaland was fouled by Marc Cucurella.
He stopped short of criticising the officials however, adding: ‘It’s the opinion of people sitting in a room with cameras.
‘For me, what can I tell you? Sometimes it’s for you, sometimes it’s against you.’