Manchester City players feel they brought defeat at Liverpool upon themselves in Sunday's Premier League clash at Anfield.
City suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 1-0 after Mohamed Salah's second half strike. The Blues felt aggrieved when Phil Foden's goal was ruled out after a VAR review penalised an earlier foul by Erling Haaland, and two City players have pointed to that moment as a turning point in the game.
Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan discussed City's performance after the game, and both referenced Foden's non-goal as a key event that turned their fortunes against them. However, the pair also said City made mistakes themselves that allowed Liverpool to take three points from a close encounter.
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“We are very disappointed. We came here to win and we lost," Bernardo said. " Three points less in the Premier League, so it's a disappointing feeling for us.
"It was an equal match between two great teams. It's always tough to play against Liverpool. Both teams had chances to score, so the result could have gone to either of the sides. We had our goal disallowed by the VAR.
"Then, one mistake leads to their goal and against teams like Liverpool, you can't afford to make those mistakes. Small details are massive in a game like this. So, the feeling is frustration because we wanted to win the three points here at Anfield.”
Teammate Gundogan agreed, saying: "In the second half, a lot of stuff happened, we scored which got disallowed, we conceded a goal which we should not have conceded. I think we played quite well in the second half but unfortunately, we gave them easy opportunities, a couple of easy opportunities, especially Mo Salah, running behind, so we got punished. That’s the sad thing about it.
“There is disappointment, that is the main feeling today. As far as we are concerned, we could have got a good result today. We scored the first goal which unfortunately was disallowed. We thought we had it but on the other side we also gave them easy chances and they converted one of them and won the game.
“The final action, the conversion was just not good enough. We got the goal disallowed so obviously it is sad for us. I think we played the way you have to play at Anfield apart from the situations which I mentioned before but unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted."
And Bernardo also hailed the growing rivalry between City and Liverpool after another high-quality, eventful encounter between the sides.
“It's a rivalry that has been growing over the last few years, we are the two teams that fought closest to win the Premier League and the Champions League over the last years," he said. "So, it's been a great show for the fans and I hope they enjoyed it because they are both great teams.”
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