The Referee Sees the Opposite– Guardiola

 

It’s probably fair to say Pep Guardiola is not a fan of tonight’s referee…

The Manchester city Boss gave the referee a piece of his mind in the post match interview;

He said, “Congratulations to Liverpool first of all. We will be back stronger in this competition next season.

“In the right moment we miss the right decisions. The referee is a special guy, he likes to be different. Whenever people see the things, he will decide the opposite.”

He added “I said it was a goal when the ball was passed to Leroy Sane. That’s why he sent me off. It would have been different to go in 2-0. It’s different when Salah’s goal at Anfield is offside. It’s different when Gabriel Jesus’ goal at Anfield is offside.

“In this competition the teams are so equal and the influence of refereeing decisions is so important. We’ll go again next season. Big congratulations to Liverpool, Hopefully they can represent England well in the semi-final.”

He also said, “We’ve had 10 amazing months. We have to recover mentally for the six games remaining. Our 10 month winning spell is exceptional. You have to analyse game by game.”

Meanwhile, Klopp tells Guardiola: ‘It’s not about perfection it’s about the result’

Basking in the euphoria of Liverpool victory over Manchester city in Tuesday Champions League clash at Etihad, Jurgen Klopp has said all he needed was the result and not to be perfect.

The Liverpool manager further gave future gave a piece of his mind stating that, “It was quite difficult tonight, again especially with the start. This wonderful goal that we served them on a plate. I was expecting something like that but I liked the reaction immediately after that.“City took all the risks they could take, we needed a bit of luck and a disciplined defending formation. I was not overly happy at half-time to be honest.

“He (Pep Guardiola) took all the risks and it was his decision and it could’ve been the absolute right one, it’s easy to say afterwards. They could’ve scored two or three goals in the first half but it was 100% clear that if we win the ball we’d have an opportunity.

“The last situation in the first half was how you do the counter-attack and that’s how we scored the two goals. It’s not about perfection it’s about the result, the character, the mentality, really fighting for the result. We defended well, it’s not our best game but we deserved it at the end.”

Liverpool midfielder James Milner said, “They’re a good team and they were always going to put us under pressure. They had chances but that shows a lot about how we came out in the second half.

“Maybe it woke us up to concede that early, it says a lot about the boys coming under that pressure in first half and in the second half last week. In the second half today we got hold of it slightly more but we still have to improve.

“Everyone knows how good Manchester City are so to beat them is a good confidence builder but we have to be better in the next round.

“We got about them a bit more in the second half, kept ball slightly better, were more composed that’s the key, it’s what you have to do against these sorts of teams.”

 

POST-MATCH STATS

 Liverpool have reached the semi-final stage of the European Cup/Champions League for the 10th time – the only English team to have appeared in more are Man Utd (12).

After reaching the Champions League semi-finals in each of his first seven seasons in the competition as manager with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola has failed to make this stage in both of his campaigns with Man City.

Jurgen Klopp has beaten Pep Guardiola more often than any other manager (7 wins).

Pep Guardiola has only progressed in two of his eight Champions League knockout ties as a manager in which his side lost the first leg (v Porto in 2015, Arsenal in 2011).

Pep Guardiola has lost three consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since May 2015 as Bayern manager.

Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah have both scored more goals in a single Champions League/European Cup campaign for Liverpool (8 each) than any other player in the club’s history.

Gabriel Jesus has scored three goals in three games against Liverpool in all competitions, more than against any other team since his debut with Man City.

Liverpool have scored 33 goals in the Champions League this season – the most by an English side in a single campaign.

Man City scored with the first shot of the game versus Liverpool, with Gabriel Jesus scoring after just one minute and 56 seconds.