Salah & Pep Guardiola’s full-time conversation decoded after Man City defeat at Anfield

On Sunday afternoon at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool defeated Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 1-0 thanks to a fantastic goal from Mohamed Salah.

The story behind the lips is out after the Reds victory over the Sky Blues on Sunday afternoon. A lip reader thinks Pep Guardiola and Mohamed Salah spoke about a refereeing choice.

When the game ended, Guardiola and Salah were caught on camera conversing. And the topic of their conversation has become the subject of fans speculation. The lips of Liverpool’s talisman striker were hidden, but Guardiola’s was not, so it’s unclear what he said.

What did Pep Guardiola say to Salah?

After watching the video, expert lip reader John Cassidy believes Guardiola said to Salah the following:

“Have a great season and game, you too. How are things? [concealed behind Salah] There is no question. It is certain, not possibly. It is definitely true.”

Guardiola might have been talking about City’s goal that was denied. After spotting an earlier infraction by Erling Haaland on Fabinho, the VAR official overturned Phil Foden’s second-half goal. It was found that the Norwegian had driven his opponent to the ground.

At that point, neither team had struck. But Liverpool went on to win courtesy of an incredible goal from Salah. Following Alisson’s long pass forward, the Egyptian spun his defender Joao Cancelo and comfortably slid the ball past goalkeeper Ederson.

Guardiola blasted Anthony Taylor’s decision to call a foul in a post-game interview. Numerous questionable challenges were left unpunished by the referee. Notably, Bernardo Silva’s late challenge of Salah resulted in Jurgen Klopp’s protest-instigated dismissal.

Before the game, the referee came to the coaches and yelled, “Play on, play on.” According to Guardiola, Millions of fouls were committed. But once they scored, he decided it was not time to continue. 

Players’ Frustration with ‘poor’ refereeing

Bernardo Silva expects the officials to make decisions consistently throughout the entire game. Therefore they must stick to their original course and continue not whistle-whistling little contact.

He added:

“If you want to whistle all of them, whistle all of them, but if from the beginning of the game you’re not – he was letting us play, which is good – then if there’s a goal, you cannot whistle that soft one. If you want consistency from the referee, you cannot change just because there’s a goal and just because it’s a tough decision, you have to make the tough decision and keep the goal.”

Jamie Carragher had his say on the incident:

 “I agreed with everything Bernardo Silva said. The referee did let a lot go… When you look at it in slow motion, it looks worse. It’s a 50-50 one. There is a shirt tug. Whether Fabinho was going down already, only Fabinho knows.”