PEP GUARDIOLA WAS left to rue injuries to Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva after Manchester City returned to Champions League action with a 3-1 win at FC Copenhagen last night.
Grealish, handed his first start in six matches, lasted just 21 minutes of the holders’ largely straightforward last-16 first-leg success at Parken Stadium before being forced off with a groin injury.
Silva, who put City into a 2-1 lead just before the break with a fine flicked finish, took a knock to the ankle late in the game.
The double blow comes after Josko Gvardiol missed the game with an ankle injury and Mateo Kovacic was also unavailable.
City manager Guardiola said: “It’s something muscular with Jack, his groin.
“He felt it on the grass, started to complain. The players can feel it immediately if it’s muscular. It’s a pity, he’s gutted.
“He wanted to continue but we didn’t want to make the damage even worse. We’ll make tests tomorrow.
“Bernardo has a big knock in his ankle and Josko is out two to three weeks. Kova is ready to come back.”
The injuries took the gloss off what was a mainly comfortable night for City.
They took an early lead through Kevin De Bruyne and, dominant in all departments, should have led by more before Magnus Mattsson levelled after an Ederson error.
Silva restored the lead and Phil Foden gave the scoreline a more realistic look in stoppage time.
Guardiola said: “It was really, really good. I’m so proud we played at that tempo. It was perfect.
“We were patient in the right moments but it’s not done. I know how difficult it is.
“It’s not decisive but a good result. Hopefully we can finish at home in front of our own people and go to the next round.”
Danish champions Copenhagen had not played competitively for two months due to their league’s winter break and their rustiness was evident.
Coach Jacob Neestrup admitted it will now take something spectacular to progress but will not give up.
He said: “Of course it’s going to be difficult, but now we have three games in the Danish league where we need to get results. Then we take the away game, where we try to do our very, very best.
“The players did everything they could. I can’t blame them for anything. We played against a top, top team who know exactly what to do in every situation.”
Egg chasing is so fecking boring. Who likes this rubbish bar a few wasps ??
Ah Ed, surely you can do better than that. That line has been used over and over again by many different trolls. Be a bit original please.
So why bother watching ir commenting?
His Ashton style diving could have cost his team the game. He could easily have made some yards towards the posts for both his tries and given his kicker a much better chance of nailing the conversion. Awesome step and acceleration for that second try though.
Thought the exact same thing. Talented but classless.
It’s just silly. You get your biggest lad to come crash into us then we do the same with our biggest lad. Backward and archaic with little or no skill involved. Guess that’s why it’s mainly a colonial game with little worldwide appeal
Most games are silly and most world wide games are English imported to keep stupid natives distracted while they raped and pillaged their lands. Distracted by playing, watching or commenting on the stupid games. Damn those tricky Brits
Ed what’s ur sport of choice?
Not many comments on your article. Wonder why?
Not many comments on any of the articles on TheScore.ie. Ever since they split the sections into different apps, people don’t seem to bother switching between them.
Coz the Rugby crowd is out on the town