Liverpool investigating Man City complaint over alleged fan spitting incident

Manchester City have made a complaint to Liverpool after it was alleged that a member of Pep Guardiola’s technical staff was spat at by a fan at Anfield during Sunday’s Premier League clash.

The game burst into life in the second half and the incident is believed to have taken place during the brief window when the score-line was tied at 1-1 midway through the second half.

Guardiola said he was unaware of the incident at the time but was informed about it later.

“I didn't see it. I heard about it,” the City boss told the media. “The people told me and if this happened, I'm pretty sure Liverpool is going to take a measure about this person.

“Liverpool is greater than this behaviour, at every club there are people that make bad actions because of emotion - you have to control yourself.”

BBC Sport notes that Liverpool are investigating what happened and are looking for CCTV footage. The Athletic has reported that City believe the incident was indeed caught on camera.

Guardiola had already been angered during the game by what he saw as a failure from referee Paul Tierney to take appropriate action against James Milner, who avoided being sent off following a foul on Bernardo Silva, despite having already been booked.

“It's a yellow card. It's clear,” Guardiola said. “It's Anfield, it's Old Trafford. In our situation, a City player is sent off. It's too much clear. It was a second yellow.”

Jurgen Klopp, meanwhile, admitted that Liverpool were sub-par in the first half.

“Thank God a football game has two halves. We are really happy about the second and not so happy about the first for obvious reasons,” the Liverpool boss reflected.

“We did a lot of things wrong in the first half and City did a lot of things right in the first half so we never got really in the game,” he admitted.

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