Pep Guardiola has brushed off late changes to Manchester City’s travel plans for Wednesday’s Champions League game at RB Leipzig.
The treble winners were due to fly to Germany for the Group G encounter on Tuesday afternoon but were delayed due to strong winds in the Leipzig area and their flight was rescheduled for the evening.
City manager Guardiola, who had been due to hold a pre-match press conference at the RB Arena on Tuesday, instead spoke to media remotely before travelling.
“It’s no problem,” he said. “That it’s safe to fly and land, that’s the important thing.
“It’s not at 7pm, (they said) you have to do it at 9pm and it’s not a problem. The authorities said it was so risky to fly before so that’s why we made the training session longer and the lunch longer.
“We have time to rest and now we are going to fly to Germany.”
John Stones and Bernardo Silva will travel with the squad to Germany having recently returned to training following injury.
Stones has not played since the Community Shield with a thigh problem while Silva has missed the last three games with a knock.
PEP 💬 We’re here for the people because of Franny Lee, Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell, who were a part of the generation of this organisation. On behalf of the team, a huge hug. pic.twitter.com/FV8aOCrwev
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 3, 2023
Guardiola said: “They feel better, Bernardo better than John. Both travel and we’ll decide tomorrow.
“We’re really happy they’re back. It’s taken a bit longer but they are back. That is the good news for us.”
Guardiola also paid tribute to former City player and chairman Francis Lee, who died this week.
He said: “We are here (because of) people like Franny Lee, Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell, part of the generation that created a part of this organisation, this club.
“On behalf of the team, to his wife and all the family, a huge hug.”