Pep Guardiola has expressed his concern over the scheduling clash caused by the Eurovision Song Contest, as Manchester City aims to maintain their Treble bid.
The Premier League leaders have an important away match against relegation-threatened Everton on Sunday, just three days before their Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid at home.
Guardiola would have preferred the game to be played on Saturday, but due to security reasons related to the Eurovision event in Liverpool city centre, it was not possible.
That means Real, who are out of contention for the LaLiga title and are in action on Saturday against Getafe, will have a day’s rest more than City heading into Wednesday’s encounter.
Guardiola said at a press conference: “My thought is just Everton, no more than that.
“Eleven months working for the Premier League, I don’t want to be distracted for Madrid because I won’t have time.
“Well, not much, because we play Sunday – thank you so much. I don’t understand it, but I don’t want to fight for that any more.
“We have to adapt to it. It doesn’t matter, I don’t fight any more the schedules.
“In the end we can’t play Saturday because of Eurovision or something like that in Liverpool and we don’t have enough bodies to handle two important events sometimes.
“OK, you have to adapt. What can I do? We’d prefer to play Saturday to be able to prepare but it is what it is.
“I’m pretty sure the Premier League want to help the teams. I don’t think they make it uncomfortable.”
Unlike Real, City will not want to ease up over the weekend as they look to keep Arsenal at bay in the title race.
City go into the weekend fixtures with a clear advantage, leading the Gunners by a point with a game in hand.
They could face a tough challenge against an Everton side fighting for survival and who claimed a significant victory by thrashing European hopefuls Brighton 5-1 in their last outing.
Real defender Dani Carvajal has suggested the intensity of City’s fixtures could benefit the Spanish side – who drew 1-1 with City in Tuesday’s first leg – but Guardiola is confident his players can stand up to the challenge.
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He said: “Every player is ready to play and give his own absolute contribution.
“I thought a lot about a substitution in the Bernabeu. I decided on players on the bench that are so dynamic – Phil (Foden), Julian (Alvarez), Riyad (Mahrez).
“But in the moment we didn’t need that, we didn’t need a player to increase our rhythm.
“But everybody will be so important, we have a lot of games and everyone is ready.”