Terriers made it tough for us, says City boss Guardiola

PEP Guardiola conceded Huddersfield's stubborn resistance prevented Phil Foden and Nico O'Reilly from clocking off earlier in Manchester City's 2-0 Carabao Cup win.

- By MARK WALKER

Guardiola made nine changes for the third-round tie and after Foden had given dominant City an interval lead, they had to wait until the 74th minute before Savinho added their second.

Both Foden and O'Reilly, both withdrawn late in the second half at the Accu Stadium, were the only two City players to retain their places having started in Sunday's 1-1 Premier League draw at Arsenal.

Guardiola said: “We would have liked to score a second goal and make the substitutions before for Nico O'Reilly and Phil because they played a tough game against Arsenal three days ago.

“But they are young. They have good vitamins during the days, good food, good protein and yeah, now come back to Manchester to prepare (for Saturday's home game against Burnley).

“I'm not a guy who likes to play three games with the same players, but I wanted a bit of consistency of patterns and routine for the players.

“I prefer a rotated team and it was perfect for many players - Oscar (Bobb) played good, Savinho played good, and all of them were aggressive, without the ball we were really good, winning duels, so in terms of that I'm really satisfied.”