Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits he was shaken by the bomb attacks on Borussia Dortmund’s team bus this week.
Three explosions went off as the Dortmund team made their way to their Signal Iduna Park stadium for the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Monaco on Tuesday.
Guardiola was shocked by the incident in Germany which caused the tie to be postponed for 24 hours and left Dortmund defender Marc Bartra needing surgery to a broken wrist.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said three letters claiming responsibility found near the site of the attack made Islamic extremists the possible perpetrators.
“It’s a bit scary how the world is. It’s going a bit crazy,” Guardiola told reporters yesterday.
“What’s happening in Syria... hopefully the president of the United States, the presidents of Russia and China, can intervene and find a solution, because if not we don’t know where we’ll end up.
“We have to keep living without fear, but these things can happen.
“I hope Marc has a fantastic recovery. In terms of what happened, it was scary and it was serious, but he lived to tell the tale.
“But we’re in a world where we don’t know where we’ll end up, that’s the truth. I don’t know where we’re heading.”
Meanwhile, on Footballing matters, Guardiola has confirmed that he currently does not have a first choice goalkeeper and will platoon Claudio Bravo, who turned 34 yesterday, and Willy Caballero on a game-by-game basis.
Bravo has struggled through a disappointing debut season with City having arrived at the club as apparent successor to England international Joe Hart, who was sent on loan to Torino.
Confidence
Back-up Caballero appeared to have displaced Bravo as City’s first choice but Guardiola insisted that is not the case.
“Last week I decided for Claudio. Saturday I am going to decide,” Guardiola said.
“It depends on if the opponent makes a lot of high pressing or not. The way the opponent plays as well. What I see in the training session. I have confidence with both. We will see. “It’s my decision. I like both to be involved.”
Guardiola also insists that injury-plagued defender Vincent Kompany has a future to play with his club, not least because City’s club captain is still under contract next season.
The Belgian came through 90 minutes in last week’s 2-1 defeat at leaders Chelsea, his first complete game in the league this season, only to miss out on the weekend win over Hull through a minor injury.
“Yes, he has a contract,” said Guardiola when asked if Kompany figures in his plans for next season.
“He can hopefully play two games a week in the next period, in the future. He can do that.
“But after the game against Chelsea he reacted to that, had problems with the leg, and we didn’t want to take a risk.
“But of course the good news was he could play 90 minutes, a tough game at Stamford Bridge and he played at a high level.
“What we have seen these two or three days, he’s ready for the next game.”
Klopp questions decision to make Dortmund play so soon after attack
Former Borussia Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp yesterday questioned a decision by European soccer authority UEFA to reschedule the German team’s Champions League quarter-final for just 24 hours after their bus was attacked.
Klopp argued that, while he understood the difficulties faced by the decision-makers, they probably would have reached a different conclusion had they been on the bus with the players en route to the Signal Iduna Park stadium on Tuesday.
The match in Dortmund against AS Monaco was postponed after three explosions near the vehicle that injured Spanish defender Marc Bartra. “I’m pretty sure the people who make the decision afterwards, if they had been in the bus they would not have played the game,” Klopp told a news conference in Liverpool.
“If you are not in the bus you cannot imagine how it is exactly,” he said, adding that he understood the views of both sides and it had been difficult to find another date. Dortmund’s current coach, Thomas Tuchel, said late on Wednesday his team had felt ignored by UEFA over the decision to reschedule the match so quickly.
Liverpool manager Klopp, who was Dortmund boss from 2008-2015, said he was proud of his former team, who lost the match 3-2.
“I was really proud of Borussia Dortmund. When they played the game they tried to give the best,” he said. “I saw the faces of my former players and I saw the shock in their eyes and that was really, really hard. It will take time to deal with it.”
Pep Guardiola
