Man City boss Pep Guardiola reveals dressing room message to players after shock Bournemouth defeat
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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed he talked to players in the dressing room about their lack of 'intensity' following their shock 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.
City had gone into the game with many expecting them to blow their opponents away.
But that didn't happen, with Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson scoring in either half to secure all three points.
Though Josko Gvardiol pulled one back for City with eight minutes to go, it ultimately wasn't enough.
Man City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed he talked to players in the dressing room about their lack of 'intensity' following their shock 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday
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And Guardiola has admitted he talked to his players about their failure to match Bournemouth's 'intensity' as they lost ground to Liverpool in the race for the Premier League title.
"We knew we couldn't match the intensity. We have talked about it," he said.
"It was an open game. We had chances at the end but I congratulate Bournemouth for the victory.
"The 50-50 balls in the middle, the duels, they play this type of game. They are so aggressive.
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"They had six, seven days to prepare. They have physicality and speed, but you have to win these types of situations.
"And they had chances. Ederson made a good save. We had real good moments at the start of the second half and after that it was difficult to swallow as we were good.
"After we scored we had momentum and chances but couldn't score [again]."
City are without many of their big hitters these days. But Guardiola was keen to avoid using that an excuse.
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"It is what it is," he added. "We have few players with a lot of minutes and a lot of players with no minutes to the balance is a bit uncomfortable.
"We played good against Spurs but today we could not handle their intensity that they had and that's why we lost the game."
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, meanwhile, also spoke after the game.
He was asked about whether his side's win over City was similar to when his Rayo Vallecano team beat Real Madrid in November 2022.
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Man City were second best as Bournemouth beat them 2-1 at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday
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And Iraola responded by saying: "It's kind of similar. When you beat Real Madrid, it's kind of similar.
"You know you have to be at your best level and wait for them to not have their best day.
"We had to feel the pressure and it was tight at the end.
Man CIty boss Pep Guardiola has refused to blame his side's injury crisis for their shock 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth
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"I'm very pleased, one thing is to beat City but another is to play better.
"We played with no fear, tried to press when we could and defend when we had to.
"It was dangerous in the last 10 minutes. You don't enjoy that at all. There was so much pressure."
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