What Pep Guardiola said to Kostas Tsimikas during controversial Man City v Liverpool celebration

Pep Guardiola was caught by TV cameras celebrating wildly in front of three Liverpool substitutes after Manchester City’s equalising goal in their win this afternoon.

City earned a 4-1 victory against the Reds at the Etihad Stadium to maintain their Premier League title challenge. Jurgen Klopp’s side opened the scoring in the 17th minute but were pegged back 11 minutes later through Julian Alvarez’s finish. Efforts from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish in the second half condemned Liverpool to a third successive victory in all competitions.

After Alvarez’s leveller, Guardiola was spotted going crazy in celebration as Liverpool subs Kostas Tsimikas, Joel Matip and Arthur Melo made their way back to the bench.

Here’s the full transcript of what Guardiola said about the incident when asked at his post-match press conference.

Pep, after your equaliser, TV showed you interacting with a couple of Liverpool subs. Is that something you got carried away in the moment?

“I was happy and I said: 'How nice was our goal?' That’s all.”

So it was an attempt of humour?

“Of course, come on.”

Just going back to that point, it was pretty provocative. You seemed to celebrate right in Tsimikas’ face. Was there some sort of incident before it?

Come on.

It’s been all over TV.

“Nah, come on. I’m so sorry. Speak with Tsimikas, speak with the others. Ask him if I lack respect, I celebrate the goal with my son on that floor (the tier above). And I said ‘The goal was nice, wasn’t it?’ That’s all. I’m so sorry. Do you think it’s a lack of respect? Ah ok, sorry. I’m so sorry”