Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola defended backup goalkeeper Zack Steffen after his blunder handed Liverpool a crucial second goal in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Jurgen Klopp's side had taken an early lead through Ibrahima Konate's powerful header, but Steffen took too long on the ball inside his six-yard box and allowed Sadio Mane to capitalise, sliding in to double Liverpool's lead inside the first 20 minutes. The 27-year-old recovered from the error and turned in an assured performance after that, despite being pressured by Liverpool's fans for the rest of the game.
Steffen's decision to try and take his time to pick a pass was reminiscent of Ederson doing the same on his own goal-line last week, but this time it proved costly, but Guardiola admitted that was a risk inherent in the way City play.
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"It’s an accident, it happens. Edi was close in the last game as well. We need that for our football," he said.
“You should review if it happens often but the way we use our keeper and move them in different situations, I’d say the average of the way we create from there this can happen. It was an accident, I’m pretty sure Zack doesn’t want to do it. Sometimes strikers miss chances."
Guardiola said on Friday he was unsure who would start in goal, but Steffen has been the Blues' cup goalkeeper this season and after the 3-2 defeat to Liverpool that ended their Treble hopes he insisted he had always planned to start the American.
“Absolutely not. It isn’t fair when you play cups and don’t play him for one moment, Zack deserved to play and he made good decisions and good saves after that. He’s an exceptional goalkeeper," he said.
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