Pep Guardiola claimed that referee Paul Tierney was influenced by Liverpool‘s supporters when he decided against issuing a second yellow card to James Milner for a foul on Bernardo Silva during Manchester City’s 2-2 draw at Anfield.
Milner was cautioned in the first half for wrestling Phil Foden to the ground and was involved in another contentious incident with the England midfielder before that when he caught him just outside the penalty area. The 35-year-old filled in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back and endured a torrid time before being replaced by Joe Gomez late on.
Just prior to his substitution with just under 20 minutes of the match remaining, Milner committed a cynical trip on Silva but somehow avoided picking up another yellow card, much to the obvious frustration of Guardiola who berated the fourth official Mike Dean on the touchline.
A few minutes later, Mo Salah scored a wonderful individual goal to put Liverpool 2-1 up and that sparked another furious outburst from Guardiola who was booked for his dissent. City salvaged a point nine minutes from the end when Kevin De Bruyne’s shot deflected in off Joel Matip and Guardiola celebrated the goal with more gusto than usual.
When asked for his opinion of the incident after the game by Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves, Guardiola responded: “It’s a yellow card. It’s clear. It’s Anfield, it’s Old Trafford. In our situation, a City player is sent off. It’s too much clear. It was a second yellow.”
When asked whether Liverpool were fortunate, Jurgen Klopp said: “I don’t know. There was one situation when Pep got a bit outraged. I didn’t see that. I obviously saw Pep’s reaction! But I didn’t know exactly why he did that. The plan was to take Milly off, it was clear that they were going after him on that side. Milly did incredibly well in the first half, it’s not easy to defend against these guys.”
The result means that Chelsea head into the international break at the top of the Premier League table with Liverpool in second and Manchester City in third.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3BjB64I
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