Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
David McDonnell

Pep Guardiola's reward for Man City stars ahead of weekend showdown vs Liverpool

Pep Guardiola will give his Manchester City players a day off in the sunshine as a reward for all but clinching their place in the Champions League knockout stage.

City need a point in the return fixture away to Olympiakos on November 25th to seal their place in the last 16, after making it three wins from three in Group C.

Ferran Torres opened the scoring in the 12th minute with his third goal in as many Champions League games for City and fourth since his £21million summer move from Valencia.

But City had to wait until the 81st minute to kill the game, substitute Gabriel Jesus marking his return from injury with a goal, with fellow sub Joao Cancelo adding a third in the 90th minute.

With the forecast for some rare sunshine in Manchester over the next few days, Guardiola will give his players a day off – before getting back down to business with the visit of champions Liverpool on Sunday.

“I saw the forecast and in the next three days it will be sunny here in Manchester,” said Guardiola.

(REUTERS)

“That’s rare. So that's why we are going to make recovery [on Wednesday], day off the day after in the sunshine and after that, Friday and Saturday we're going to prepare for the game, so the guys need a break, the players and the staff.”

Jesus, who made his first appearance since City's opening game of the season, said: “It’s so good for me. When I got injured, I was so unhappy.

“I worked a lot to recover as quickly as possible, because I wanted to be on the pitch helping my team mates.

"They were doing very well so I was happy to come back and score.”

Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.