Nico O'Reilly Drops the Coldest Response to Mo Salah Interview Question
Nico O'Reilly delivered an ice-cool response when asked about his performance against Mo Salah at The Etihad on Sunday.
Manchester City closed the gap to Arsenal at the top of the Premier League to four points following a statement 3-0 win over last year's champions Liverpool.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring on the half-hour mark after being denied from the spot by Giorgi Mamardashvili earlier in the half.
Arne Slot's side then believed they had equalised through Virgil Van Dijk, however, the goal was controversially ruled out by VAR due to an offside.
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A Premier League statement explaining the decision read: "The referee’s call of offside and no goal to Liverpool was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Robertson in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper."
Pep Guardiola's men then doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time as Nico Gonzalez's relatively tame effort deflected off the rooted Van Dijk.
Jeremy Doku then completed the scoring after the break, with an outrageous curling effort to put the cherry on top of a terrorizing performance from the Belgian.
Despite Man City's attacking prowess, considerable praise was heaped onto 20-year-old O'Reilly, who completely neutralised the threat of Salah as well as providing an assist.
O'Reilly not surprised by Salah performance
Speaking after the match, O'Reilly shocked fans by admitting his performance against Salah was completely expected.
“I came into the game thinking that this would be the outcome," he said via Man City.
"I know how good he is as a player but yeah I studied his game. I knew what he would want to do, I knew how strong he was already.”
O'Rielly has once again been called up by Thomas Tuchel for the upcoming international break, all while playing out of position given his youth career as a midfielder.
Guardiola, who managed his 1000th game on Sunday, has been quick to praise O'Reilly for the step up he has made this season, highlighting his versatility.
“Nico O’Reilly… he’s a top, top player. He can play in three, four positions,” the City boss said.
“His presence in set-pieces, one-v-one, with the ball he's really good, arrives good in the final positions. He's a player hopefully for many years!”
Tom Jenkins