Pep Guardiola claimed coins were thrown at him by Liverpool fans during Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Sunday.
Guardiola was also furious at the VAR decision to disallow Phil Foden’s strike as Manchester City fell to defeat at Anfield against Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah’s goal was enough to give Jurgen Klopp’s side a 1-0 win, as they produced their best display of the season by a significant margin to end City’s unbeaten start to the campaign.
“Next time they should do it better because they did not get me,” Guardiola said of the coins. “They tried but they didn’t get it. They got it on the coach years ago but not this time.”
Liverpool, meanwhile, have issued a statement condemning abusive chants from City fans and damage caused to the stadium.
“We are deeply disappointed to hear vile chants relating to football-stadium tragedies from the away section during today’s game at Anfield,” the statement read. “The concourse in the away section was also vandalised with graffiti of a similar nature.
“We know the impact such behaviour has on families, survivors and all those associated with such disasters. We are working with the relevant authorities and we will also work with Manchester City in order to do our utmost to ensure these chants are eradicated from football altogether.”
Before Salah’s finish, which came after Joao Cancelo’s unsuccessful attempt to cut out a long ball by Alisson, City had the ball in the back of the net themselves as Foden’s shot proved too powerful for Joe Gomez on the line.
It came after Erling Haaland and Fabinho collided in the build-up, before the City striker then challenged Alisson as the goalkeeper came off his line and the ball fell into Foden’s path.
However, referee Anthony Taylor was advised by VAR to look at the pitchside monitor and after doing so deemed it to be a foul on Fabinho by Haaland, as he returned to the pitch to rule out the goal.
Guardiola was absolutely furious on the touchline at the decision, as Anfield celebrated it like a Liverpool goal, and the City boss pointed to the number of strong challenges that Taylor let go during the match as he hit out at what he perceived to be inconsistent officiating.
“This is Anfield, every time you come here lately unfortunately this is Anfield,” Guardiola said.
“We played a really good game but this is a game where there are really fine margins and the mistakes are punished. We made a mistake and we cannot concede and that’s why we lost the game.
“We played to beat Liverpool today, definitely we played for that. After 1-0 the crowd shouted but we shouted more on the pitch.
“The referee said play on, play on, play on, there were a thousand million fouls like this and this one is because we scored a goal. So they disallowed because we scored a goal, otherwise it would not have been disallowed.
“We lost because we make a mistake but this is Anfield.”
