"There were a thousand million fouls like this!" - Pep Guardiola fumes at referee decision in Liverpool defeat

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was left seething at the manner in which his side were denied an opening goal through Phil Foden at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

The City boss and his players were looking to return to winning ways after a disappointing 0-0 draw against Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

However, their visit to Merseyside proved to be the frustrating game that many had expected beforehand.

While City may feel they were the better side during some parts of the game, they were unable to secure the goal that could have set them on their way to three points at Anfield.

The talking point of the game came via Phil Foden's disallowed strike in the second-half, after Erling Haaland was adjudged to have fouled Fabinho in the build-up to the strike.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on the sideline during the Premier League match at Anfield (PA Images/Alamy)

That left Pep Guardiola outraged, gesticulating to the Liverpool supporters in the stands at Anfield that this is what he expects when he visits the Merseyside club.

Speaking after the game, offering his overall thoughts on Manchester City's performance, Pep 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 Manchester City boss continued by fuming at the inconsistency of Anthony Taylor's decisions during the clash at Anfield, and most notably the decision to deny the Premier League champions an opening goal midway through the second-half.

Pep Guardiola said, "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."

Guardiola claims he was targeted by Liverpool fans at Anfield (Image: Alamy)

While understandably frustrated at the manner in which City were denied a goal at Anfield, Guardiola insists that the 1-0 defeat to Jurgen Klopp's side was not solely down to VAR's involvement in the game.

"We lost because we make a mistake but this is Anfield," Pep Guardiola insisted.

That mistake came midway through the second-half, when a long ball from Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson ran through to Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian forward was approached by Joao Cancelo unnecessarily, who completely misjudged his attempt to tackle the Liverpool man, and allowed the forward to run through on Ederson's goal and score.

Manchester City - while being obviously disappointed at the manner in which they fell to defeat on Sunday afternoon - now have an entire week to work towards rectifying their dropped points against Brighton at the Etihad Stadium next weekend.