Pep Guardiola dedicated Manchester City’s derby win over Manchester United to the late boxing legend Ricky Hatton after the former world champion was found dead at his home on the morning of the game.
Hatton, who became a world champion at welterweight and light-welterweight, was due to visit the Etihad Stadium for the derby before his tragic passing was announced on Sunday, according to reports.
A minute’s applause was held in memory of Hatton, who was a lifelong City fan, with Guardiola describing the tributes as “unbelievable” and “intense”.
“I’ve been here for 10 years and there’s a lot of minutes of silence. I don’t remember one so, so intense like today,” Guardiola said. “I want to say thank you so much to the Man United fans for the way they behave and they applaud.
“I know he was a world champion in boxing. It was a special, special moment. Of course there’s no words that can explain the pain that the family feels right now for this loss. But of course, we are close. I know how incredible a Man City fan he was, he could love the bad moments and the good moments in the last 10, 15 years. I think he will enjoy it, I know for the fans how close he was.
“The minute’s applause was unbelievable. It was an experience that I will always remember because they feel, in every applause or every person in the stadium, the gratitude for what he has done professionally and of course being a massive, massive City fan. We are so sad and feel so sorry for the family.”
Tributes were paid to the late boxing legend Ricky Hatton (Photo by OLI SCARFF/Getty Images)
City’s victory was certainly something that Hatton would have loved to watch as Erling Haaland scored twice inside 15 second-half minutes after Phil Foden broke the deadlock in the first period.
It marked Haaland’s seventh goal in two games after he scored five for Norway against Moldova on international duty; he has also recorded eight goals in his last nine appearances against United.
“Erling never disappoints us,” said the City manager. “Erling has the commitment, that’s why he’s assigned a contract for many many years because he’s a special player and we have many of them.
“We cannot forget in December for many reasons, especially injuries, this summer we brought in eight or nine players because Oscar [Bobb] should be a new player, he didn’t play one minute last season because he was injured and Rodri was injured so we have to sign eight or nine players, the core and the spine of the team redefined the club.
“We need that sometimes. The players that we still have are, they have pride and incredible leadership and all the success we’ve had, the players were unbelievable and we want to continue.”
'The spirit was really good'
Despite this spirit-boosting victory, Guardiola isn’t getting carried away and used a good example of last season, where, even with four wins from their four opening games, problems still arose for the eight-time Premier League champions, who ended up earning Champions League football thanks to a late surge up the table last season.
Still the Catalan had plenty of praise for his team, and rightly so due to their outstanding performance that boosted his side into eighth in the top-flight table.
“I would love to [use the result as a launchpad] but I would just say it’s one game,” he said. “Last season we started with four victories in a row in the Premier League and after what happened in October, November, December, we struggled a lot so we had to improve.
“To see us winning games, especially in the derby and seeing the pictures of our fans, the joy, the happiness, the game, always, is better but it’s just one game and try to get close to the teams at the top of the league. It’s important after two defeats at home to United, the body language was unbelievable and the spirit was really good.”