One of the standout moments from Liverpool’s 4-1 defeat away to Manchester City in early April was Pep Guardiola celebrating Julian Alvarez’s equaliser in the face of Kostas Tsimikas on the touchline.
The Reds’ Greek defender showed admirable restraint at such provocation, although he’s now spoken out about what he told the opposition manager following that match at the Etihad Stadium.
The 27-year-old was speaking with Gazzetta when he touched upon that flashpoint in the loss to the Premier League champions just over six weeks ago.
Tsimikas revealed of Guardiola: “He said to me ‘sorry, I didn’t do it to offend you [with the celebration], I did it because we scored a very good goal’. And I told him that I would do worse things if we scored in front of you, so there is no problem.”
Liverpool fans are sure to love this cheeky response from the Greek Scouser, who thankfully didn’t react at the time of Guardiola’s unnecessary antics.
Looking back on that incident at the Etihad, it’s interesting to note how little condemnation there was of the Man City manager for celebrating a goal in someone’s face compared to when Jurgen Klopp did it to fourth official John Brooks during the win over Tottenham a fortnight ago.
The German was out of line that day, but for a full week afterwards he was being hanged, drawn and quartered in public by almost everyone under the sun. That didn’t happen to the Spaniard over his celebration in front of Tsimikas and Arthur when they defeated the Reds a few weeks prior.
Even an ex-Manchester United stalwart in Rio Ferdinand said of Guardiola on the day of that game (when he was on punditry duty for BT Sport): “I don’t know how Tsimikas hasn’t pushed him out of the way there!”
We’re not going to advocate that Kostas respond in kind to the City manager if he were to score against them in future – simply scoring against the champions when he next gets the chance would be the best form of revenge for what happened at the Etihad.
It’s “hanged” not hung.