Jack Grealish reveals illness battle before and during starring role in Manchester City's win over Liverpool
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
ByEurosport
Updated 01/04/2023 at 15:16 GMT
Manchester City star Jack Grealish was named man of the match after scoring one goal and setting up another in a 4-1 win over Liverpool, but the England international has revealed he felt sick 'all morning' before the game and spent half-time in the toilet. Grealish was in superb form as City closed the gap to Arsenal to five points with a swashbuckling second-half performance.
Experience counts for 'absolutely nothing', says Guardiola ahead of title run-in
Jack Grealish has revealed he spent the half-time interval of Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Liverpool in the toilet feeling sick, before coming out after the break to score in a man of the match performance.
There were no signs of queasiness in the England international’s performance as he scored one goal and set another up in a superb comeback win for Pep Guardiola’s side.
Mohamed Salah’s early strike gave The Reds hope of a big win, but Grealish set up Julian Alvarez for the equaliser before the break and struck himself along with Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan in a strong second-half showing.
Asked about what happened at half-time to turn the game in City’s favour, Grealish wasn’t best placed to explain.
"I don't even know," Grealish told BT Sport. "We had a chat between ourselves and with the manager and he said we have to stay in the game. I thought we were good first half apart from the goal.
“I was in the toilet (at half-time), I felt sick all morning. But buzzing in the end, I feel alright now.”
The former Aston Villa man has been in fine form recently after finding his feet following a difficult debut season at the Etihad last term.
"I love it - I love playing, training. When it's going well there's nothing better, I feel back to my normal self, playing with confidence, I feel fit. Scoring and getting the assist is perfect,” he said.
He added: “I'm going to love you and leave you now - I need to see how many days off I've got!"
The result narrowed the gap to Premier League leaders Arsenal to five points ahead of The Gunners’ clash with Leeds United later on Saturday.
Guardiola was delighted with his players ahead of a crucial period of the season where they must narrow the gap to Arsenal and face a two-legged Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich and FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United.
"Minute one to minute 93 was a perfect performance - even though we concede a goal we played really well,” Guardiola said. “They [Liverpool] always have threat on transition but we played really good. One of the best performances in my seven years.
"The players knew we weren't playing bad. One goal down and we continued to do it and had just a bit of chat at half-time and were lucky to score the second goal. But then at 2-1 the game was stable."
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article