Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 5y

Manchester City boss Guardiola 'sorry' for win against Swansea with no VAR

SWANSEA, Wales -- Pep Guardiola said he doesn't like to win matches with wrong decisions but added Manchester City were one of the clubs that wanted the Video Assistant Referee for all games.

City kept up their quadruple hopes when they fought back from two goals to beat Swansea City 3-2 in the FA Cup quarterfinals with the help of two controversial decisions.

Swansea players were unhappy when Cameron Carter-Vickers was judged to have tripped substitute Raheem Sterling for the equaliser, while Sergio Aguero was offside when he headed in the winner two minutes from the end.

But while VAR will be used at some FA Cup games, it was not in use in Wales and the decisions were upheld unchecked.

"Honestly I didn't watch it. Secondly, if it's a penalty or offside like the people say then I'm sorry. But you have to ask the authorities why the VAR is not here," Guardiola told a news conference.

"They asked all the clubs if they want VAR and we said we want VAR all season. All around Europe, VAR is there and here it is not. Ask the people why the VAR is is some games and not here.

"I don't like to lose games when the decisions are wrong, the referees don't want to make wrong decisions and they must be helped.

"Sometimes it's centimetres and they spend three minutes on VAR looking at it, imagine taking the decision in one second during the game.

"I don't like to win it this way, but at the same time if you see the game we played incredibly well. The keeper was incredible. When we analyse the game we deserved to win by far."

After City's shock exit to League One Wigan Athletic in last season's FA Cup, Guardiola's side were facing another humbling at lower league opponents after Matt Grimes penalty and a brilliant strike from ex-Academy player Bersant Celina.

But Bernardo Silva gave City a lifeline with a fierce strike 20 minutes from the end and the Portuguese playmaker insists anything is still possible.

"We are so happy," Silva said. "It could have gone either way, Congratulations to Swansea who played very well and made it difficult but we kept going, pressing and eventually the goals came.

"Now we can head off for the international break and when we come back, we can try to win the three competitions we are still in.

"It won't be easy -- we could win them all or lose them all -- everything is possible but we will be trying our best to be successful."

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