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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool would not have won against Manchester City with an extra man on the field after they were comfortably beaten 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
City midfielder Rodri, who had not long ago been booked, escaped a second yellow card in the first half for a foul on Cody Gakpo but Klopp said afterwards that going down to 10 men probably wouldn’t have stopped Pep Guardiola’s side from winning.
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“I didn’t see it good enough,” Klopp said. “Could he have got a second yellow? Yeah. I am not sure we would have won against 10 men.”
Liverpool took the lead through Mohamed Salah before Julian Alvarez equalised for City. But Klopp said the game was lost because of a dire second-half display during which City scored three times and said only four players — Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Alisson and Gakpo — had put in adequate performances.
“Four performances were OK,” the Liverpool manager added. “The two midfielders, Hendo and Fab, worked a lot, Cody and Ali and that is very difficult. If you want to get something here, 14 or 15 players have to be on top of their game and that was not the case.”
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Meanwhile, Guardiola was forced to defend his reaction to Alvarez’s equaliser after he appeared to celebrate directly in front of Liverpool substitutes Konstantinos Tsimikas and Arthur Melo.
“I was happy and I said how nice our goal was,” Guardiola said, when asked afterwards about the interaction on the touchline.
“I’m so sorry [if it was disrespectful]. Ask him [Tsimikas] if I lack respect, I celebrate the goal the way I do with my son. I’m so sorry. Do you think it’s a lack of respect? I’m so sorry.”