Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has defended his decision to make eight changes to his side for today's FA Cup fifth-round clash with Huddersfield Town.
John Stones, Aleksandar Kolarov and Fernandinho were the only players to keep their place from the team that started against Bournemouth on Monday as City were held to a goalless draw by their Championship opponents at the John Smith's Stadium.
However, Huddersfield also made seven changes to their side and Guardiola believes that City's failure to win was more to do with the quality of their opponents.
"Huddersfield rotated their players. With this schedule with a lot of games - we played three or four days ago, we had this game, we have Champions League against Monaco - these players deserved to play," he told reporters.
"If we didn't have a replay we would have played Wednesday against Stoke City. We are going to be two or three days [in Abu Dhabi] together to see our chairman. We are coming back on Saturday and at midday we will be in Manchester. We will have Sunday and Monday to prepare.
"I said a big compliment to the team because I know how difficult that game is with the pitch. Two days ago they played rugby and everything is a bit slow, they are so aggressive, they are so dynamic.
"They have a really good team, that is why they are where they are in the Championship. We will play the replay for the first time in my life and we will try and qualify. The first half we had our chances, the goalkeeper was brilliant. The second half maybe we played a bit better but we didn't create too many chances."
City are not in Premier League action next weekend due to Manchester United's involvement in the EFL Cup final.
Barney Corkhill
