Pep Guardiola took a swipe at the scheduling as Eurovision threatens his team's tilt at the Treble.
Manchester City head to Goodison Park on Sunday in a Premier League title race where there is little margin for error, before their big showdown with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday. The Blues had wanted to play Everton on Saturday but it was deemed impossible given Liverpool is hosting Eurovision on that day and there will not be enough police for a football match.
Guardiola is choosing to see the positive of having an extra day to prepare for Everton, but the unhappiness at the time between that game and Real Madrid was clear. Even if he did not criticise the Premier League directly, the City boss moaned at a fight he is tired of losing.
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"I don't want to be distracted by Real because we have time - not much time because we play Sunday, thank you so much... - but the Goodison Park game is a priority," he said.
"I don't understand it but I don't want a fight on that any more. I don't understand but we have to adapt it.
"We don't fight on the schedule from the Premier League, UEFA and so on It's not frustrating - how many times can I comment on that? I'm pretty sure that La Liga and the Premier League want to help teams, I don't think they want to make us uncomfortable.
"It is the schedule with this amount of games that is the problem. We couldn't play on Saturday because of Eurovision in Liverpool and we don't have enough police to do two events at the same time.
"We would prefer to have more time to prepare but it is what it is. It's not like in France or Germany where they play on Friday [when teams are in Europe the following midweek]. Here, the Premier League is more important and the schedule is the schedule.
"We cannot swap. I felt it since day one and it's not going to change."
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