Pep Guardiola compared to Phil Brown after bizarre on-pitch huddle after Manchester City’s Champions League draw
Pep Guardiola seemed to take inspiration from infamous former Hull City manager Phil Brown at the end of Manchester City’s draw with RB Leipzig.
City travelled to Germany on Wednesday night for their Champions League round of 16 clash but could only muster a 1-1 draw in the first leg.
Riyad Mahrez gave the away side the lead in the first-half but they failed to capitalise on their dominance with Josko Gvardiol heading in a late equaliser.
With City being one of the favourites in the competition the result surprised and disappointed many though Guardiola maintained it was a good performance and defended his bizarre decision not to make any subs.
But that wasn’t the only strange occurrence at the Red Bull Arena, with Guardiola gathering his players in a huddle after full-time to debrief them on the pitch.
This sight invoked memories of Brown’s much mocked incident in 2008 when he conducted his half-time team talk on the pitch instead of the changing room after Hull found themselves 4-0 down at Manchester City.
‘I dunno, he’s doing a debrief on the pitch! You don’t really see this. Phil Brown was the last person we saw do this at Hull City!’ Rio Ferdinand said on BT Sport.
‘I think there’s frustration. After that first half, which went so well in terms of performance, control of the game. Second half was totally different.
‘And I think that’s down to Leipzig, you’ve got to give them credit the way they came out, changed things. And Man City didn’t really react.
‘Saying that, they still had some very good chances in the second half to finish the game. But after watching the whole game I think a draw is a fair result.
‘Looking at Pep’s body language there, he’s probably saying to them, “Listen, not a bad result, let’s bring them back to our place and we’ll deal with them back at the Etihad”.’
Guardiola later revealed why he decided to gather them in a huddle, explaining: ‘Yeah because they had their heads down!
‘I said, “Why are your heads down? Get your heads up. It was really good the game we played!”
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