Pep Guardiola claims Man City were victims of Anfield bias over Phil Foden's disallowed goal

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has questioned the decision to disallow Phil Foden's goal in his side's 1-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, claiming those sorts of calls always come at Anfield.

Foden found the back of the net early in the second half but saw his strike chalked off following intervention from VAR Darren England, who alerted referee Anthony Taylor to a foul from Erling Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up.

Guardiola was visibly livid at the decision and, after the game, claimed that Taylor had only disallowed the goal because the game was being played at Anfield.

"The referee came to the coaches and said play on, play on," Guardiola told Sky Sports. "There were a million fouls. But after we scored a goal, he decided it is not play on. This is Anfield."

In Guardiola's post-match press conference, he added: "This is Anfield, every time you come here lately unfortunately this is Anfield."

Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan also echoed Guardiola's complaints.

"Well, the experience says he is not so wrong, to be honest," the German told Viaplay Football. "The experience of the last few years.

"I mean also today if you look at the situation. It seems very soft to us. Obviously they will say it is a clear foul and we will say it is very soft.

"I said to the group before as well that the sad thing as well is that before the game the referee has explicitly mentioned to us they would not whistle for soft fouls, which they actually did all 90 minutes. So they are very strict and also in that situation where we have scored and the referee is three or four meters away from the situation.

"He has clear vision to it and thought it was not a foul. It is quite soft and I don’t know why it is going back to the VAR. But then again, football is full of opinions. Today they decided it is against us. Past several times as well at Anfield. It is what it is and we need to accept it."

Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey and Toby Cudworth are joined by Tom Gott in the latest episode of Talking Transfers. The team discuss Erling Haaland's Manchester City release clause, Mason Mount's future at Chelsea and their sporting director plans, and what the future could hold for 700-goal Cristiano Ronaldo at Man Utd. Available on all audio platforms.

If you can't see the podcast embed, click here to download the episode in full!

The comments found their way to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who laughed off the complaints and pointed out that the Reds had been let down by the officials themselves late on as an apparent foul on Mohamed Salah right in front of the linesman went unnoticed.

"I heard now that people said it was Anfield that made the VAR decision," he said.

"With a foul on Mo, Anfield had no chance to make any impact. It's a foul on Fabinho [in the lead up to Foden's goal], I think we agree on that. Is it not enough to pull somebody down?"