Guardiola defends City’s Donnarumma after Farke ‘fake injury’ claim

Pep Guardiola defended Gianluigi Donnarumma after Leeds boss Daniel Farke suggested that the goalkeeper had faked an injury during Manchester City’s dramatic 3-2 win on Saturday.

City dominated the first half at the Etihad Stadium, going ahead through Phil Foden’s goal just 59 seconds into the match before Josko Gvardiol doubled their advantage.

But Leeds hit back in the second half of this Premier League encounter, with substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulling a goal back for the visitors.

The score was still 2-1 to City when home keeper Donnarumma called for medical attention with manager Guardiola quickly gathering his players around him as he attempted to adjust to a change of formation from Leeds.

City manager Guardiola’s team talk could not stop Leeds equalising after Gvardiol conceded a penalty from which Lukas Nmecha scored on the rebound following a Donnarumma save.

Guardiola insisted he had believed Donnarumma’s injury was genuine, instructing James Trafford to warm up in case he was required.

“I didn’t speak with Gigio,” he said. “When it happened, I looked back to the dugout and said ‘James, warm up’. I don’t know. Next press conference you can ask me and I will ask Gigio.”

‘Nothing I personally like’ –

Farke was adamant that there had been a significant change in the game after Donnarumma received attention, even though Leeds drew level.

“It is within the rules,” said the German. “It is smart. (Whether) I like it, (whether) it is in the sense of fair play… I keep it to myself and I leave it to the authorities to find solutions for it,” he added.

“I asked the fourth official at this point if you want to do something and he said: ‘No, our hands are tied, we can’t do anything’.

“If we don’t educate our players in football, what to do in terms of fair play? Sportsmanship? If you just try to bend the rules to your advantage and you can do a fake injury in order to do an additional team talk, it is nothing I personally like but if it is within the rules, I can’t complain about it.”

City kicked-off following successive defeats by Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen, and blowing a two-goal lead against a relegation-threatened side would have been another setback to their Premier League title hopes.

“It was a relief,” Guardiola said of Foden’s winner. “The game was not perfect in the first half but it should be over with the chances we had. We didn’t concede and after that they damaged us with the system, like Leverkusen has done with a 5-3-2.”

He added: “Football is emotions. We conceded the second and after we made a step up. We reacted really well. We had to put the ball quickly in the box. With the full-backs, wingers, it doesn’t matter and in the end it’s the quality of Phil.”