Manchester United vs Manchester City clash in Beijing is cancelled due to bad weather
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Monday’s International Champions Cup match between Manchester United and Manchester City has been cancelled due to poor weather in Beijing.
Both managers, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, had expressed concerns about the pitch at the Bird’s Nest Stadium following very heavy rain in the Chinese capital.
A tweet on United’s account read: ‘Due to recent weather events, tournament organisers & participating clubs have decided to cancel tonight’s International Champions Cup game.
Mourinho condemned the state of the pitch in Beijing where the first Manchester derby to be played on foreign soil had been due to take place and feared his players may suffer injury.
Both teams had to train at the nearby Olympic Sports Centre on Sunday following concerns over the pitch at the Bird’s Nest Stadium after 24 hours of heavy rain.
‘I think Beijing is unlucky because the pitch is very bad,’ Mourinho said. ‘The pitch and the conditions of my players are more important than results in pre-season. It’s not a problem for me to lose matches in pre-season.
‘It’s a problem for me, bad conditions for my players to train and bad conditions for my players to play. So if you ask me my objective for the match tomorrow I only have one: take the players home safe without any kind of injury.
‘It’s not the conditions to play a good game of football, but we have to play. We cannot just run away and disappear and not play. So we have to play and try to be lucky.
‘Normally, when you say lucky you say lucky because you want a good result. The result I want tomorrow is to go home without injuries and that is the luck I want.’
Despite the best efforts of City’s deputy groundsman Craig Knight, who has been in China for the past 10 days to try and sort out the pitch problems, the weather showed no signs of improvement and the match has been called off.
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