Angry Pep Guardiola made it plain that he was not disrespecting Manchester United when he said that Manchester City's Champions League clash with Club Brugge was "more important".
The Blues ' boss was clearly unhappy that his words ahead of the game - which City won 4-1 to go to the brink of qualification for the last 16 - were misinterpreted as playing down the size of the derby, or the ability of the Reds.
Asked about the derby, he launched into a tirade, saying: "The people taking the p*** for me for saying today is more important. NOW the important one is United.
"For me today was really important. Twenty-eight games left in the Prem - twenty-eight and here just six to qualify. And this is incredibly important.
"Everyone saying 'Pep is talking bulls***', I wasn’t. This was so important. Hopefully in the last 16 with the best teams in Europe.
"I don’t know if you saw West Ham away but I prepared like you can’t imagine. We played like a great team, we lost on penalties, the only disaster is losing a game.
"Every game, my focus is the next one, never the second one. For Sky the game is the most important thing, we are going to create good environments but you cannot imagine how important it was. Two fantastic games and now we start to think about United."
