Guardiola talks about Bellingham's "f*ck off" controversy: "My English is good but I've never understood it"

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City coach, is in Madrid waiting for the second leg in the Champions League knockout play-off against Real Madrid, with the task of coming back from an unfavourable 2-3 at the Santiago Bernabéu. A few days ago, he said to English press that there was a "1%" chance of winning, but yesterday, to Spanish press, he said that "I lied to you". "For the first time you didn't believe me. "As days go by, you encouraged yourself, but it's not the best result to defend, but we will try".

In the press conference, answering some questions in English and other in Spanish, Guardiola was asked about the recent controversy: did Jude Bellingham say "f*ck you" or "f*ck off"? As a non-native English speaker living in England, Guardiola was asked about the semantic confusion and he said that "I have never been able to understand it, I need more years in England to understand it".

"Since football is football, there have always been insults", he adds, pensive, before explaining that "the problem are not the words, but the intention". "What was his intention? Only him and the referee knows".

Guardiola, reading the recent news that the referee that sent Bellingham off, Munuera Montero, has been temporally suspended by the Spanish Football Federation amid an investigation regarding possible conflict of interests (he has a parallel business), asked for "referees to be left alone".