First the ire, then the embarrassment: Pep Guardiola apologizes

What happened after the final whistle of Newcastle Manchester City, a match played on Saturday and won by the hosts 2-1 with Barnes’ double, interspersed with Ruben Dias’ momentary equalizer, has caused no small controversy: the images of Pep Guardiola’s harsh rebuke of a cameraman on the sidelines have gone around the world, leading the Catalan coach himself to publicly step back.

Furious critics against Pep Guardiola after ugly gesture: photos

“I apologized to him – Guardiola confided, according to BBC Sport -I reviewed the pictures, I was ashamed of what happened, I did not like at all how I behaved and I apologized directly to the cameraman. I have been here for a thousand games but I am not perfect, I make even huge mistakes. At that moment I just wanted to defend my team”.

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With Newcastle, Manchester City ended a Premier League winning streak that had lasted since October 26 and had allowed them to climb back up the standings after a few too many stumbles in the first few days. The Citizens, after twelve league games, are in third place with 22 points, seven less than top-ranked Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola has been at Manchester City since 2016: with the Mancunian club he has won the Premiership six times, the League Cup four times, the Community Shield three times, and the FA Cup twice. In Europe, again speaking of his time at City, he won a Champions League and a European Super Cup in 2023, the year the club also won the Club World Cup in its old format.