Pep Guardiola insists that he wasn't angrily berating Manchester City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega after they suffered a late collapse and drew 2-2 with Brentford.
City boss Guardiola was spotted getting animated while talking to Ortega just seconds after the full-time whistle, with cameras picking up the on-field moment. Viewers quickly theorised that Guardiola wasn't happy with his goalkeeper, with City having been 2-0 up going into the final 10 minutes.
Late goals from Brentford's Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard changed the outcome, with Bryan Mbeumo even having a chance to win it for the hosts in added time. Guardiola wasn't happy, marching onto the pitch to shake hands with Brentford's players and the match officials before becoming animated with Ortega, who got a big piece of Norgaard's leveller.
According to Guardiola, though, he was actually praising the German as well as defender Josko Gvardiol, who also received a talking-to. Post-match, the Spaniard explained: "[Gvardiol] played incredible! I was satisfied! The same with [Ortega].
"I said how good he played, the actions with the ball, the pass to Erling [Haaland], how happy and satisfied I am, especially with these two players and what they have done..."
It's not the first time that Guardiola has looked angry while actually praising one of his players in full view of the stadium at full-time. In March 2016, he looked to be criticising Bayern Munich midfielder Joshua Kimmich following their 0-0 draw away to rivals Borussia Dortmund, only to explain that he was just hailing the young midfielder's display.
Ortega, like Kimmich, received a hug from his passionate manager after being shouted at and it appears that he'll keep his place when City travel to face Ipswich Town on Sunday. The reigning Premier League champions were on a run of three successive wins before Brentford mounted a comeback.
Guardiola felt that there were positives from City's performance after scoring two goals through Phil Foden, although the result leaves his side in sixth place with 18 games of the season remaining. "It's happened," the former Barcelona and Bayern boss concluded.
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"One day we take the decisions, today no. I'm not complaining at all to the players. I'm just here to make an analysis. We have three against three, two against two, but we didn't do it and it's happened. It's about how we can do a little better. It's not about this being the reason why we drew.
"Today we produce a lot of actions, but we didn't finish. Savinho, Phil, Matheus [Nunes], Erling have incredible pace, but we didn't finish. The shot on the post from Savinho, actions from Erling, sometimes it happens. It's not easy for players to take right decisions all the time properly at the speed they go.
"It will improve. I am incredibly satisfied with performance. Of course we are sad because we were close to winning but we did not win."
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