Guardiola slams Palace time-wasting following FA Cup final defeat | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola criticised referee Stuart Attwell for not punishing time-wasting from Crystal Palace after Manchester City lost the FA Cup final on Saturday.

The Eagles held on for victory and their first ever major trophy following Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute finish, which ended up being the only goal of a tightly contested game.

In an eventful first half Omar Marmoush missed a penalty for City and Dean Henderson was lucky to escape a red card after handling the ball outside the area.

Daniel Munoz had a goal chalked off for offside in the second half for Palace, but the south London outfit spent most of the game defending for their lives before coming through 10 minutes of added time unscathed.

At the final whistle Guardiola could be seen quarrelling with Henderson on the pitch, which the goalkeeper confirmed was over Palace’s perceived time-wasting efforts.

“I went to shake his hand, but I think he was disappointed with the time-wasting,” he told ITV. “I said, ‘you got the 10 minutes you wanted’. No hard feelings.”

Guardiola slams Palace time-wasting following FA Cup final

Guardiola played down the confrontation in his post-match press conference, praising Palace for their defending while saying his team would never employ such tactics.

“He defended his position, we defended our position,” he said. “It’s time-wasting. I understand in the last minutes, but since the one or two minutes? He’s British, in English football, you have to play.

“I’m sorry. Everyone can do whatever they want. We have to score goals. We didn’t lose because Henderson was time-wasting. In the last minutes, I understand [time-wasting].

“They gave us nine or 10 minutes extra time, but it’s a question of rhythm. All the fans are there to let the 22 players play, play, play, play. So, when you see Barcelona now, they’re losing, attack, attack, attack, attack, and the other team attack, attack. The show is beautiful.

Read – Henderson ‘knew’ he would save Marmoush penalty in FA Cup final

“But I understand his position. It’s a question of the referee, not a question of mine.

“Because we don’t have the rhythm that you need again, again, again. I understand when it’s 92 minutes, 86, 87, you know. But I don’t feel it.

“My team, I never try [to do it] because I try to play the game like the people deserve to watch. Saying that, congratulations because at the end they defended really, really well and we were not able to score a goal.”

Read – The last five teams to lift the FA Cup for the first time

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