Pep Guardiola says Man City will remain positive and never give up
Pep Guardiola approached the referee with a parting shot: “Thank you so much.”
The Manchester City manager’s comment in earshot of the onfield camera was dripping with disdain.
Regardless of later assurances to the media – “it was not sarcastic” – there was no doubting his irritation toward Michael Oliver after the 31 loss to Liverpool on Sunday.
Refereeing has been in Guardiola’s sights, especially after the introduction of VAR. And particularly after this third loss in 12 matches of the title defence left City nine points behind Premier League leader Liverpool in fourth place.
It could all be a smokescreen for a tilt at a third successive title fading, with 26 games still to play and Liverpool well placed to end a threedecade drought by sitting eight points ahead of Leicester and Chelsea.
What got Guardiola so worked up? City not being awarded a penalty just before Liverpool raced up the other end and scored.
“Ask to Mike Riley and the big bosses about that,” Guardiola said, citing the league’s head of refereeing. “Don’t ask me.”
Premier League referees never appear on camera to explain decisions and the audio feed to the VAR is not public. So scattered explanations behind decisions only drip out of the world’s richest soccer competition.
Just five minutes into the game, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s outstretched right arm handled the ball but it was not deemed to be deliberate.
But City midfielder Bernardo Silva had already helped the ball on with his hand, appearing to be in contravention of the new laws of the game against the attacker.
With play continuing, Liverpool launched a counterattack that saw Sadio Mane charge down the left flank from inside his own half.
“It’s their quality,” Silva said. “You cannot give them much space.”
A cross into the penalty area was cleared by Ilkay Gündogan directly to Fabinho who struck powerfully from distance in the sixth minute past Claudio Bravo, who was filling in for the injured Ederson.
“Today we showed in the most difficult stadium right now in the world the reason why we are the champions,” Guardiola said. “One of the most proudest performances I’ve ever lived as a manager in my career in this stadium.
“Always be positive and never give up, that’s why we won backto-back titles. We want to fight until the end. We dropped points for our faults. For other things we cannot control.”
Referees and soccer officials were among those arrested in Bosnia on Monday in a match-fixing investigation into the country's second division, prosecutors said.
Suspects are facing charges of organized crime, bribery and abuse of position, the Bosnian Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
The suspects have been implicated in "demanding and receiving gifts and other benefits" to fix the outcome of matches during the 2018-19 season, the statement added.