‘Embarrassed and ashamed’ – Pep Guardiola apologises for ‘huge mistake’

Pep Guardiola has apologised for a confrontation with a cameraman after Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat to Newcastle last Saturday.

In the immediate aftermath of the defeat at St James’ Park, Guardiola could be pictured having words with a cameraman.

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He even removed his headphones, while the Spaniard had words with Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton.

Both the Newcastle midfielders had to be escorted away at the time, and Guardiola has now apologised for his actions.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of City facing Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, he said: “I apologised.

“I feel embarrassed, ashamed when I see it. I don’t like it. I apologised after one second to the cameraman. I am who I am.

“After 1,000 games I’m not a perfect person, I make huge mistakes. The reason why is I want to defend my team and my club.”

And on the chat with Guimaraes, he said: “We have known Bruno for many, many years and every time after the game, even at the Etihad, we talk in the tunnel or wherever we talk, always. I don’t know what happened.

“Our paths always cross and I always have a good relationship with him. I love it. I’m an emotional guy, I love to talk and move my hands and my arms and everything.”

What was he annoyed about?

City and Guardiola felt that numerous decisions that had a huge impact on the game went against them on Tyneside.

In the first half, Phil Foden thought he should have had a penalty for a Fabian Schar tackle.

The England internationa; got his shot off, and the Toon centre-back was making a genuine attempt to block the ball.

Yes, there was contact, but the referee and VAR deemed that the contact was inevitable due to Schar sliding in and trying to make a tackle, which seemed fair.

The Magpies’ second goal also proved to be controversial.

They opened the scoring after Gianluigi Donnarumma had denied Nick Woltemade three times and Harvey Barnes had missed from four yards.

It was Barnes who got the goal after a flowing move between him, Joelinton and Guimaraes ended with the winger firing home from the edge of the area brilliantly.

Ruben Dias equalised soon after with a deflected strike from a corner before the controversy.

Sandro Tonali delivered a corner into the box that had to be cleared off the line because Donnarumma was in no mans land.

He thought he’d been fouled by Barnes, but play continued with Woltemade looping a header into Guimaraes that hit the crossbar.

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It came down for Barnes, who quickly adjusted his feet and hooked the ball home to send the St James’ Park faithful wild and strengthen his claim for a World Cup place with Scotland.

Donnarumma was booked in the aftermath because he thought he was fouled, but replays showed the contact was minimal.

There was also a long offside check on Guimaraes, but it was deemed he was onside.

Had City won, they could have closed the gap to Arsenal to a point, but instead, the Gunners made it seven with a brutal 4-1 win in the north London derby.

So, Guardiola likely knew how important three points would be, but his team didn’t deliver and Eddie Howe picked up his first-ever league win over the Spaniard.