“The Spaniard gave players the opportunity to rotate.”, — write: football.ua
The Spaniard gave players the opportunity to rotate.
Pep Guardiola, Getty images December 18, 2025, 2:40 p.m
“We’ve had a run of games with Erling Holland and Ruben Diaz and the rest should be ready for the Nottingham Forest and Sunderland games in our crazy schedule ahead. We’ve been saying a lot lately that everyone should be on the same page.
The guys on the bench were supposed to be on the same wavelength as the team, and they proved it. Mateusz Nunes was very focused, as was Bernardo Silva, as always. When Josko Guardiol came out, he was incredibly dedicated.
We need three more days, West Ham have had a long week and time to prepare for the game, we have little time, only one day. Tomorrow is training, we are used to it and we are preparing together with our fans to win this important game, and then we have a little break that will be longer than usual.
That’s why we released Rico Lewis, Khusanov, Nathan Ake, Divaine Mukasa – these footballers who haven’t played much lately have performed very well. In the first half, we did not have enough aggressiveness in pressing, the game was not up to the mark, because the defenders did not move forward, that is why we had difficulties.
We achieved a good result, in the first 10-15 minutes it was difficult for us to take control of the game, but after that, the two actions of Savinho and Oscar behind the defenders, I am very pleased with the way the substitute boys played.
In the second half, Ryan Sherky didn’t do his job defensively, he didn’t have enough energy, Savinho too, so we needed the help of Josko, Mateusz and Bernardo, who helped us a lot to get the tempo.
I didn’t want to leave Nico O’Reilly on the field, we have a very important game against West Ham, I didn’t want Phil Foden to play so much, but Oscar’s injury happened. All the substitutes played very well and we are in the semi-finals again. I am very satisfied,” said Guardiola.