PEP GUARDIOLA says he is still angry with Kyle Walker – three months after his ‘stupid’red card at RB Leipzig.
The England full-back serves the second game of a three-match ban as Manchester City host Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday.
It has left his manager facing a defensive headache with Ruben Dias,Nathan Ake and Joao Cancelo all ruled out through injury and illness.
City appealed against the length of the ban – which was given for a red card on Andre Silva late on in a dead rubber group game.
But Guardiola reckons the 31-year-old deserved to be given three matches, saying: “When a player does a stupid thing, he deserves to be banned for three games.
“I'm not so kind to Kyle in this kind of action. I'm still so angry with him.
“It's not necessary to discuss with him, he knows it. Kyle is so important for us, you saw the game he played against [Manchester] United?
“But in Leipzig when we had already qualified, 80 minutes in and he made this kind of action? He deserves the three games.”
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City decided to appeal to UEFA after hearing of the ban – as United’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka got his suspension reduced to two matches.
Guardiola added:“The club appealed but I did not agree.
“They have to do it because in other similar cases it was just two games [but] he deserved it. Hopefully he learns for the future.”
So City are thankful they have a 5-0 lead ahead of the second leg with Sporting – as they have only 14 fit and available senior players.
Guardiola said: “We don’t have many players. We have just 14 players available. We have a few problems, the suspension for Kyle, Joao is sick and cannot play.
“We are in a little bit of trouble behind, in the back four. Of course we had an incredible result in the first leg, we start the game 5-0, but it is not done.
“Football is unpredictable in many cases. Red cards can be a distraction, or the quality of the opponent – that is why we’ll take a top side as much as possible.
“From not many alternatives we are going to do the best to try to win the game.”
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