Pep Guardiola, coach of the English football team Manchester City, expressed his satisfaction after his team finally returned to winning ways with a major victory over Nottingham Forest 3-0, the day before yesterday.
The British news agency (BA Media) reported that the defending champion entered into a crisis, after failing to achieve any victory in seven consecutive matches, including six defeats, and a 3-3 draw, after being ahead by three clean goals.
Four defeats came in the English Premier League, reducing the team’s chances of winning the league title for the fifth time in a row, but it seems that the team succeeded in turning things around by defeating Nottingham Forest in the match that was held at Etihad Stadium.
“We needed this win,” Guardiola said. The club, the players and everyone needed this win.”
He added: “But this is one match, and after three days we will be at Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace, which is always a difficult match.”
He continued: “We played well. We received some offensive turnovers, missed some easy things, and missed some passes that should have been avoided, but in general, the most important thing is to break the streak of not winning matches, and we achieved the victory.” Kevin De Bruyne participated for the first time since last September, after recovering from a pelvic injury, and made a big difference to a team that seemed to have been renewed. De Bruyne’s contract (33 years old) expires at the end of the season, but his participation from the beginning, and his good performance, was a strong response to the recent hints about a dispute with Guardiola.
Guardiola said of De Bruyne’s outstanding contribution: “I am very happy for him. He missed several months last season due to injury, and this season as well.” He also expressed his happiness at Bruin’s return, and said: “He struggled a lot, trained hard and regained his fitness. He performed well in the minutes he played at Anfield, and today he played 75 great minutes.”
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