Manchester City star Jack Grealish dedicated his long-awaited goal in Wednesday’s 2-0 win against Leicester to his late brother.
Grealish netted from close-range in the second minute at the Etihad Stadium, scoring in the Premier League for the first time in 16 months.
The 29-year-old England winger marked his first league start since last December by helping City move back into fourth place as they chase Champions League qualification to salvage a dismal season.
It came on the 25th anniversary of the death of his younger brother Keelan, who died at the age of just nine months.
“This day is always hard in the family, but I was happy to score,” Grealish said.
“My mum and dad were here. This day is always difficult in the family. So to score and to win was brilliant.”
Grealish has struggled for regular action this season due to fitness and form issues, losing his place to Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Savinho.
But Guardiola has been impressed with the way Grealish has handled his issues.
“Jack is an incredible human being in terms of gestures and he’s incredibly generous,” Guardiola said.
“I didn’t know that. I can’t imagine how tough it was but to be with his mum and dad, his sister and all the family, it’s good.
“He scored a goal and made a good game. I’m happy for him. I know it’s not easy when you don’t play quite regularly.”
Omar Marmoush added the second goal after 29 minutes and City eased through the remainder of the game to push second-bottom Leicester, who remain 12 points from safety, closer to relegation.
“It wasn’t easy with 10 players behind the ball in the box and we missed the third goal to be more relaxed,” Guardiola said.
“But we didn’t concede anything until near the end and I’m pleased for a good performance.”
Guardiola also offered clarification on the length of Erling Haaland’s absence after the Norwegian suffered an ankle injury in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final win at Bournemouth.
The striker has since received specialist treatment from Dr Ramon Cugat in Barcelona.
“He saw him and we expect five to six weeks,” Guardiola said.
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Arne Slot said he does not agree with the offside rule that meant Diogo Jota’s goal stood to beat Everton 1-0 on Wednesday, but that the right decision was made.
Jota fired home the only goal just before the hour mark at Anfield as Liverpool opened up a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
Luis Diaz had been in an offside position when James Tarkowski cut out a pass towards the Colombian.
But Diaz then pounced on the loose ball to tee up Jota to drill in his first goal since January.
Everton boss David Moyes said he was disappointed to lose a derby to a “clearly offside goal”.
However, Slot said the officials did get the decision right as the rules stand given Tarkowski deliberately played the ball.
“It was not offside, according to the rules,” said Slot.
“Do I like the rule? No, I don’t like the rule. I hate that rule but the execution of the rule was fortunately for us today well done in that situation.”
The goal was the second highly controversial call of the game after Tarkowski avoided a red card just 11 minutes in for a wild lunge on Alexis Mac Allister.
The Everton captain was given a yellow card by referee Samuel Barrott, who was not instructed by VAR to review his original decision.
Slot said he did not need to comment on the decision as so many others had spoken out on the challenge.
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville described it as a “leg breaker” in his role as a pundit commentating on the match.
Even Moyes accepted that Tarkowski was lucky to stay on the field.
“Since I have seen it, we could have been lucky we didn’t get a red,” said Moyes.
“It looked a high one. I think it was the follow through that looked worse.”
Agencies