Pep Guardiola paid tribute to an ‘incredible’ Nick Pope after Newcastle United’s goalkeeper played a starring role in Sunday’s 3-3 Premier League draw with champions Manchester City, speaking to the club’s official website.
It’s not often a goalkeeper stands out in a game where he’s had to pick the ball out of his net on three different occasions.
But if it wasn’t for Nick Pope – performing miracles of a biblical proportion for the second week in a row to salvage a hard-fought point – then a terrific performance full of energy, enthusiasm and no-little quality would have counted for nothing as far as Eddie Howe’s vibrant Magpies are concerned.
Nick Pope shines in Newcastle’s Man City thriller
“It’s really good for us to live these kinds of experiences,” Guardiola reflected following 90 minutes with more balls-to-the-wall action than a Michael Bay omnibus.
“I told them at half-time that we need to live this. We were 2-1 down, let’s see how we are as a team.
“The second half started well but we conceded a brilliant goal (Kieran Trippier’s free-kick). We kick off after the third, we attacked and we showed that we were there.
“We score two more goals and in general we create a lot of chances, one-on-ones against Pope. England has an incredible goalkeeper there.”
Pope might have been beaten by an instinctive Erling Haaland finish early in the second half but he did get his own back – and more – on City’s Terminator-esque centre-forward. Not content with brilliantly tipping a Haaland curler onto the post, he then out-witted arguably the game’s most feared marksman one-v-one.
And it wasn’t just Pope in Guardiola’s sights at full-time. If any performance summed up Eddie Howe’s Newcastle, it was this; Front-foot and fearless.
“He is one of the top managers. He took over in difficult circumstances. The team you see is growing. They want to have a leading role in games,” Guardiola adds.
“They have everything, they have pace, they have quality. It is a difficult place to come.”
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