Man Utd v Man City: Pep Guardiola defends Claudio Bravo after derby win

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has defended keeper Claudio Bravo despite numerous mistakes in Saturday's derby win over Manchester United.

Bravo was making his debut after being brought in from Barcelona to replace Joe Hart, who joined Torino on loan.

But, with City leading 2-0, the Chilean dropped the ball for United to score and almost cost his side further goals.

"We played good in the first half because of Claudio," said Guardiola, whose side held on to win 2-1.

"I like the keepers to attack the ball and after what happened with the goal, the second half he continued to play and that's a good thing about his personality."

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Manchester City were the better side in the opening 45 minutes and looked comfortable after goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho.

But Bravo, 33, who arrived in a £15.4m move from Guardiola's former club, dropped Wayne Rooney's free-kick to allow Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score before the break.

Guardiola, who likes his sides to build from the back, had brought in the keeper for his ball-playing skill.

But he was caught in possession by United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan to give Ibrahimovic a chance to equalise and also had to make a recovery tackle on Rooney after a heavy touch.

Mourinho: 'We should have had two penalties'

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believed that strong challenge on Rooney warranted a penalty and a red card.

And he also thought referee Mark Clattenburg should have awarded a spot-kick for a handball by Nicolas Otamendi, although the ball appeared to hit the City defender on the back.

"Mark made two big mistakes. Claudio Bravo is a penalty and a red card - if one of my players do that in the middle of the park -if [Marouane] Fellaini or Rooney do that in the middle of the park - it's a red card and a free-kick," the Portuguese said.

"In the box it is more difficult to give and he didn't want to give it.

"The second one is a handball by Otamendi - some pundits will say 'no' because it's the back of the arm but he knows. He's looking at the ball. We are not happy with these decisions."

'City not ready for European elite'

City (right) almost played with a front four, while Ibrahimovic (9) was isolated for the hosts

City, who maintained their 100% winning record in the Premier League, host Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League group stage on Tuesday.

It is a competition the Etihad club have yet to win since being transformed in 2008 by the wealth of owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

And despite a notable change in City's style this season under Guardiola, playing the ball out from the back at every opportunity, the Spaniard has played down the club's European hopes.

"We are not ready to compete with the best clubs in Europe. We are creating well but we need more in front," said Guardiola, who won two Champions League trophies during his four years as Barcelona boss and claimed three German titles in his last job at Bayern Munich.

"But if we want to play against the best clubs in Europe we are not able to compete the way we are playing.

"But we have only been together two months so we have time to get better."

Asked if his insistence on playing the ball out from the back was risky, Guardiola said: "Yes. If you lose the ball they will score. But you can control the game.

"Until my last day in England I will try to play with the ball as much as possible. I know it's impossible for 90 minutes but I'm sorry, I will not negotiate that."

Would basketball rules have helped United?

United suffered their first defeat of the season, after winning their first three Premier League games.

Wingers Anthony Martial and Juan Mata had started all of those games but were replaced by Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on Saturday.

With City dominating possession in the first half and 2-0 up after 36 minutes, Mourinho said he would have liked to have made substitutions.

"I didn't change it at 20 minutes because I didn't want to destroy the players," said the Portuguese, who brought on Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford for Lingard and Mkhitaryan at half-time.

"I didn't want to make three changes at half-time because it would have been a long 45 minutes. With a free number of changes, like basketball, I would do after 20 minutes.

"In the next big game in the Premier League I know who can accept the dimension of the game well."

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