Guardiola left red-faced after pre-match Wolves snub comes back to bite Man City
Hwang Hee-chan scored Wolves' winner against Manchester City on Saturday - just 24 hours after Pep Guardiola called him "the Korean guy".
City suffered a 2-1 defeat at Molineux to dent their title hopes. Wolves took the lead early on when Ruben Dias put the ball in his own net before Julian Alvarez equalised just after half-time. Yet Hwang's strike ensured the day belonged to Gary O'Neil's side.
Although City are still top of the Premier League, their lead over Arsenal in second is now just a point after the Gunners won 4-0 at Bournemouth. Goals from Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Ben White gave Mikel Arteta's men a huge win.
City have now lost back-to-back games after Newcastle knocked them out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Saturday's result is very embarrassing for Guardiola, who angered Wolves fans by failing to remember Hwang's name in his pre-match press conference.
Speaking ahead of City's most recent loss, Guardiola said: "We always struggle in Wolves and when you see the quality individually that they have. Especially up front with (Pedro) Neto, with (Matheus) Cunha, with the Korean guy. They are really really good."
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Yet Hwang's name will haunt Guardiola for a while after his goal on Saturday. Wolves didn't waste an opportunity to mock Guardiola by writing "THE KOREAN GUY" on X after Hwang's winner. The post received more than 90,000 likes within an hour.
Guardiola wasn't asked about Hwang during his post-match interview with the BBC, in which he praised Wolves. The City boss said: "Congratulations Wolves, they deserved it. We had chances and struggled to deal with transitions and they played very well.
"We were there and settled well and the question is when the opponent is faster and quicker, we have to accept it."
Hwang Hee-chan scored Wolves' winner on Saturday (Getty Images)What did you make of Pep Guardiola's pre-match comments? Let us know in the comments below!
O'Neil expressed his delight after his team's famous win. He said: "(I am) pleased, of course. The season's not started well for us. (It has) been a tough start. The lads have stayed committed in every game and gave everything. The game looked exactly as we prepped.
"I'm not out here making big statements. I am just trying to win a game of football. (We have) Aston Villa next week and they won 6-1 today. If the prep can go as well as it did and the lads stick to the plan we can cause them some problems.
"We needed to find a way to be solid and have enough attacking players to carry us up the pitch. We prepped for the game really well. The lads saw all the (patterns) that we looked at and they carried it out brilliantly."
O'Neil added: "Beating the best team in the world, and possibly ever, is a massive result for us. It is a big result. Beating Manchester City with where they are and off where we were and what people were saying about it. To answer it with that, was pretty pleasing."
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