Old friends Pep Guardiola and Daniel Farke’s embrace at the end of Man City’s 1-0 win over Leeds United at Elland Road was genuine, but everything around them was anything but peaceful.
MORE — Leeds v Man City recap, video highlights
Leeds pushed Man City early and late but a resolute City managed to keep a clean sheet and allow for Antoine Semenyo’s late first-half goal to be worth three points.
Farke was shown a red card after the final whistle for a fiery remonstration at the officiating crew, and Guardiola later had to help separate Leeds and Man City players during a heated meeting of the minds. That left Leeds assistant Eddie Riemer to handle media duties and do his best to explain Farke’s red card.
City move within two points of table-topping Arsenal while Leeds exit the day six points clear of the bottom three.
Pep Guardiola reaction to fiery end of Leeds 0-1 Manchester City
Big win? “Every game here is hard against Leeds, who are so aggressive in duels. But we made a lot of thousand million passes which still works in football. In the last 15, 20 minutes of the first half it was just pass without attack but huge victory.”
Had to soak up a lot of pressure but also find a way through a tough Leeds defense: “All the teams are like that but Bernardo and Rodri did well. We made a lot of passes and didn’t find in behind, we needed to look a little bit more but the guys made an extraordinary effort.”
Great goal? “Top moment from behind the by-line, the pass from Rayan. And the work not just from Antoine but everyone in the box.”
Have you been surprised how well Semenyo has played right away after transfer? “You never know it’s like Marc. You buy players and the intention is good but the impact has been good.”
“Cherki, for me, this was his best game. Solidity and aggressive with the ball. All of them were really good, the commitment and they stuck with the gameplan.”
And you did it without Erling Haaland: “I wish he was back.”
How long will be out? “I don’t know.”
Are you hitting your stride toward a title run? “One game at a time. Now we start a real season with many, many games. People are tired. You play teams who are down or playing for Europe. The Premier League team is more competitive than ever. It is important that we qualify for the Champions League. We take a little gap from the other teams. This step is massively important.”
Is this team ready to make a run to the title? “When we won 13, 14 games in a row in the past I never know when we start those runs. It’s just one game at a time, recover our people.”
Leeds assistant Eddie Riemer reaction to fiery end of Leeds 0-1 Manchester City, Daniel Farke’s red card
Thoughts on the game: “Outstanding performance. We put a really big shift in and pushed them to the end. Unbelievable performance. We’ll try to recover well and be there against Sunderland on Tuesday.”
Not scoring in the first half hurt: “We should have scored a goal. I don’t think we allowed too many chances, it was quite equal. The moments against City, you don’t get many chances. We should’ve scored a goal and when it comes close to the halftime whistle and you concede at the worst possible moment. To put such a shift in, completely proud of the boys.”
Pushed for a winner late? “Not just toward the end. We tried to push them but against this world-class team of course you’re going to suffer and be pushed back. We changed the formation several times to a 4-4-2, back to a 3-5-2.”
Why was Daniel Farke sent off? “I just had a short chat with him. There were incidents and obvious time wasting. We felt he could’ve given a corner several times. They got a yellow card in added time, six minutes. He runs on the pitch and I think he said ‘For what’ and this is why he gets sent off but maybe it was for aggression or a harsh manner. He rarely gets sent off. The first one was over-celebrating when we got promoted. This is the second and I think it’s very harsh.”
