Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he was targeted by objects during fiery Liverpool clash

Pep Guardiola was left furious by a disallowed goal in the wake of his Manchester City side’s 1-0 defeat at Liverpool and claimed he was targeted by objects thrown at him by the home crowd.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was sent off late on for protesting at the referee, while Guardiola accused the fans of targeting him.

“The crowd tried [to throw coins/objects] but they didn’t touch me. Maybe next time they will be better,” Guardiola said to BBC Sport.

The City manager, like his Liverpool counterpart, was unhappy with the refereeing and in particular the decision to disallow Phil Foden’s goal.

Anthony Taylor was called to the VAR monitor after the goal went in and judged that Erling Haaland had fouled Fabinho in the build-up.

“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 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.”

City are now four points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, and they face Brighton next on Saturday at the Etihad.