Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola bemoaned his side’s lack of attacking output in Sunday’s FA Cup final and dismissed the incident that saw Dean Henderson avoid a red card earlier in the game.
Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game as Crystal Palace defeated City to win their first ever major trophy.
City were in control of the ball for much of the contest, having 78 per cent possession and taking 26 shots, including six on target, per Opta.
Guardiola said after the game that his side had done all they could.
“We didn’t score so congratulations to Crystal Palace for the victory — we did everything,” he told BBC Sport. “Today, we were more aggressive. If you’re not going to score goals, you’re not going to win.”
“In the last two games we shot 50 times,” he added in his post-match press conference. “Football is sometimes like this. We did everything and they defended well. We created chances. We controlled the transitions really good. Unfortunately we could not win and we congratulate Crystal Palace.”
Guardiola was seen talking to Palace goalkeeper Henderson after the final whistle. Henderson was at the centre of a controversial moment in the first half, when he appeared to handle the ball outside his penalty area box and divert the ball away from Erling Haaland, who was through on goal.
VAR reviewed the decision and ruled that Henderson was denying City an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Henderson saved Omar Marmoush’s penalty 14 minutes later.
“Ask the referee,” Guardiola said when asked about the incident, adding that his exchange with Henderson was “nothing.”
Henderson said that he believed Guardiola was upset with what he perceived as time wasting.
“I just wanted to shake Pep Guardiola’s hand and I think he was disappointed with my time wasting,” the 28-year-old told ITV. “I said to him ‘you got your 10 minutes (of extra time) that you wanted, so no hard feelings?’”
City return to action when they take host Bournemouth in a Premier League clash on Tuesday.
(Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)