FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Premier League - Crystal Palace v Manchester City - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - December 7, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola before the match REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
(Reuters) - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola welcomed having an extra day to prepare for their midweek Champions League game at Juventus and said it would give his stretched squad time to recover from Saturday's league game against Crystal Palace.
City were held 2-2 at Selhurst Park in the latest blow to their title chances, with Guardiola's squad missing a number of key players due to illness and injury including Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, John Stones and Phil Foden.
Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were the latest to join City's list of absentees, both sidelined after injuries suffered in their 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last week.
"My people have started to study (Juventus) and fortunately we don't play on Tuesday, we play on Wednesday so we have one more day to recover these players because we don’t have players to come back," the Spaniard told reporters.
Guardiola said medical staff are working hard to get the players up to speed but that the club had to accept that injuries were part and parcel of football.
"Don’t feel sorry, accept the challenge and maybe at the end we will have more satisfaction about the way we behave than in other seasons when we won the titles," he added.
City lost 4-1 to Sporting and drew 3-3 with Feyenoord in their last two Champions League fixtures.
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
