{"id":6210,"date":"2025-08-31T23:45:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/im-not-messi-ballon-dor-winner-rodri-responds-to-manchester-citys-defeat-against-brighton-on-the-return-of-his-long-awaited-injury\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:45:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:45:29","slug":"im-not-messi-ballon-dor-winner-rodri-responds-to-manchester-citys-defeat-against-brighton-on-the-return-of-his-long-awaited-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/im-not-messi-ballon-dor-winner-rodri-responds-to-manchester-citys-defeat-against-brighton-on-the-return-of-his-long-awaited-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I&#8217;m Not Messi&#8221; &#8211; Ballon d&#8217;Or winner Rodri responds to Manchester City&#8217;s defeat against Brighton on the return of his long-awaited injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body\">\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Against Amex Stadium&#8217;s Brighton, Rodri began his first Premier League start in nearly a year, despite Pep Guardiola saying he &#8220;really doesn&#8217;t fit&#8221; until after an international break.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>The Spanish midfielder showed all his classes in the first half, completing the most touches and passes, but in the second half, Brighton manager Fabian Hazeler made four changes to change the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Since then, Brighton looks like a team likely to score, and they officially did it via James Milner and Bra Jungluda, who became the second oldest scorer in Premier League history and Bra Jungluda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>After these consecutive defeats, players in the Euro 2024 tournament claimed it would take time for both him and City to return to their best.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not Messi. I&#8217;m just going to come back and win the team, win, win,&#8221; Rodri said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a group. When I won in the past, I needed all my teammates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s true, I need to recover to my best level and we need to look at everything about ourselves. It&#8217;s a collective sport. Hopefully, after a break, we can get much better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>City took the lead late in the first half through Erling Haaland, who scored the 88th goal in his 100th Premier League appearance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Brighton struggled to break down City Down, and Guardiola&#8217;s men seemed to be heading for a critical victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>But when Hurzeler made four changes right after the time mark where Brighton was ignited in life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Rodri believes his team should have won the game despite not being in their best form, but two &#8220;child mistakes&#8221; disappointed them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;We were in control of the game and I don&#8217;t think we were in the best form,&#8221; he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>\u201cWe didn&#8217;t create the best match, but today we should win because we admitted two big mistakes and counterattack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>\u201cSome of the mistakes we make are kids\u2019 mistakes, and you don\u2019t pay attention to not being focused.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;The reality is that if you want to compete, you have to level up. We&#8217;re not long at level for a long time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Rodri was named by the Spanish squad in the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Bulgaria and T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Pep Guardiola hopes his midfielder can speed beyond the international break when City faces Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal over the course of a week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Stream TNT Sports and Discovery+, including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/premier-league\/2025-2026\/rodri-ballon-dor-lionel-messi-manchester-city_sto23216999\/story.shtml\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Against Amex Stadium&#8217;s Brighton, Rodri began his first Premier League start in nearly a year, despite Pep Guardiola saying he &#8220;really doesn&#8217;t fit&#8221; until after an international break. The Spanish midfielder showed all his classes in the first half, completing the most touches and passes, but in the second half, Brighton manager Fabian Hazeler made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-english-premier-league"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;I&#039;m Not Messi&quot; - Ballon d&#039;Or winner Rodri responds to Manchester City&#039;s defeat against Brighton on the return of his long-awaited injury - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/im-not-messi-ballon-dor-winner-rodri-responds-to-manchester-citys-defeat-against-brighton-on-the-return-of-his-long-awaited-injury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;I&#039;m Not Messi&quot; - Ballon d&#039;Or winner Rodri responds to Manchester City&#039;s defeat against Brighton on the return of his long-awaited injury - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Against Amex Stadium&#8217;s Brighton, Rodri began his first Premier League start in nearly a year, despite Pep Guardiola saying he &#8220;really doesn&#8217;t fit&#8221; until after an international break. 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