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Football

15th May 2017

Pep Guardiola explains penalty confusion between Yaya Toure and Gabriel Jesus on Saturday

There's a new penalty-taker in town

Darragh Murphy

Neither penalty during Saturday’s lunchtime fixture was without incident.

We all know what happened when Riyad Mahrez stepped up to face the opportunity to bring his team level against Manchester City at the Etihad.

The Leicester winger slipped, touched the ball twice and the eagle-eyed Bobby Madley disallowed the goal, inspiring waves of a similar joke on social media.

But the spot-kick from the home team also resulted in an interesting talking point as Yaya Toure, who initially looked set to take a penalty in the 36th minute, was convinced to hand duties over to Gabriel Jesus.

The 20-year-old showed no lack of confidence as he persuaded Toure to allow him to convert, and he duly did.

After the game, which finished 2-1 in the Citizens’ favour, manager Pep Guardiola explained what happened in the discussion between the midfielder and forward.

“The first taker was Yaya, and then they took a decision,” said Guardiola, with quotes appearing in Manchester Evening News. “I love it when the players have the personality to take a decision on the pitch.

“So sometimes I speak a lot in training, at meetings, to improve, improve, improve. And maybe the players believe, ‘Okay, I do what the manager says.’

“All the managers have an idea of what you have to do together, where you have to play. But they have to take decisions.

“I am happy – I am glad. I am optimistic for the future when the players take decisions.

“Maybe Yaya was not confident. I don’t think so because to Yaya, the pressure is nothing. For him, it does not exist.”

Reports on Monday have suggested that Toure is set to be offered a one-year extension to his current City contract, confirming that the Ivorian has played his way back into his manager’s plans after it was initially believed that he was set for the exit door.

And, as for Jesus, he looks destined to be Guardiola’s first-choice striker for many years to come.

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