Dean Henderson reveals what happened during tense exchange with Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had a brief but tense exchange with Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson after Saturday’s FA Cup Final clash.

The South London side had emerged victorious in the showpiece Wembley clash to end Manchester City’s hopes of adding some shine to an otherwise gloomy campaign across competitions with a narrow 1-0 win.

An Eberechi Eze strike in the first-half recorded Crystal Palace’s first piece of major silverware in the club’s long-standing history, and also made it back-to-back defeats for Manchester City in FA Cup Finals having reached this stage of the competition three years running.

The game did not come and go without major controversy however, as goalkeeper Dean Henderson found himself at the centre of a huge VAR review for allegedly handling the ball outside of his penalty area to flick it away from Erling Haaland running towards goal.

Following the review, Henderson was deemed not to have denied a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity, as such not receiving a red card for his troubles and remaining on the pitch to deny an Omar Marmoush penalty kick just minutes later.

The Crystal Palace shot-stopper then found himself at the centre of Manchester City frustration during the closing exchanges of the game, as he continued to wind down the clock only to be booked once by referee Stuart Attwell.

Speaking with ITV Sport after Palace’s 1-0 win over City in the FA Cup Final, Henderson was quizzed on a brief but tense exchange with Pep Guardiola on the Wembley Stadium pitch after the game.

“I just went to shake his hand and I think he was disappointed with the time-wasting. I said, ‘You got your 10 minutes you were wanting’, so no hard feelings,” the English goalkeeper told reporters.

Henderson’s Selhurst Park teammate, Eberechi Eze was also keen to praise Manchester City in some capacity by insisting on the work that needed to be put in just to keep Guardiola’s players at bay.

“Only God can do this man, because… facing a team that’s been the best team in the world for how long?! Only God, man,” said Eze while speaking with BBC Sport.

“They keep the ball so well, you’ve got to work so hard to get anything from them, but we also know that when you get up there, into their box, you’ve got to take your chances, you’ve got to make it count,” he added.

Eberechi Eze has previously been mooted as a Manchester City transfer target himself in recent seasons, but no such deal has developed to a concrete level of discussions with competition for the player’s signature throughout the Premier League.

Given City officials’ hunt for a new attacking midfielder to strengthen their options and sufficiently replace Kevin De Bruyne this summer, it remains to be seen whether the England international could be deemed as a viable solution in the coming weeks.

For now, City’s attentions will lie solely on Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz with Barcelona’s Dani Olmo as a potential back-up to the German, while Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White and AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders are being lined-up for discussions and negotiations.