Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola fears his team will be left exhausted because they cannot fly back home from Wednesday's match against Newcastle.
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City travel to Newcastle in midweekMust take bus back to ManchesterWill get back later than expectedWHAT HAPPENED?
City visit Newcastle in the Carabao Cup in midweek and would usually fly home to Manchester, but they will have to take a longer bus trip because, Guardiola says, there is a problem with their plane.
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The reigning European and English champions will get home later than expected because of the five-and-a-half-hour bus journey, so will be expected to be back in Manchester around 2am on Thursday. They will then have to travel to Wolves on Friday to prepare for the Premier League match on Saturday, leaving Guardiola worried about his players' condition.
WHAT THEY SAID
"After the game we cannot come back by plane because of a problem – something for the planes," he told reporters. "We don’t have a plane to travel back, so we have to take a bus. It's two or three hours later that we will arrive here – so, so late, arriving on Thursday. The day after, Friday, we travel to Wolves, so that's what you have to think about.
"Then we go to Germany to play [RB] Leipzig in the Champions League next week. That's a really important game for us, because we know what it means to be able to win there to qualify for the next stage.
"I don’t know what happened [with the aeroplane] . The team manager told me. It happened with the previous one, I think in London. It’s not a problem with the bus, but we will arrive much, much later than we expected, but it is what it is."
GettyWHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
City will hope to maintain their perfect start to the season by beating Newcastle in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.