Liverpool forward Sadio Mane celebrates his last gasp winner with teammate Oxlade-Chamberlain

Jurgen Klopp has defended Sadio Mane after Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola suggested the Liverpool forward is “sometimes” guilty of diving.

Mane scored a late winner for Liverpool in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Aston Villa but was earlier shown a yellow card for simulation, having been criticized previously when winning contentious penalties.

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Guardiola stoked tensions ahead of next weekend’s top-of-the-table showdown with Liverpool by taking a swipe at the Senegal international for going to ground too easily.

“Sometimes he is diving,” Guardiola told BBC Sport, speaking after both City and Liverpool pulled off late Premier League comebacks at the weekend.

“Sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute. He’s a talent.” However, Klopp responded that contact was made on Mane inside the box and claimed City’s players would have likewise gone down, before insisting he did not want to talk about Liverpool’s domestic rivals.

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“I don’t know how [Guardiola] could have known about any incident in our game so quickly after their game,” Klopp told a pre-match news conference ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League meeting with Genk.

“Sadio is not a diver. There was a situation in the Villa game when he got contact and went down but there was contact. “I am 100 percent sure if something like this happened to Man City, they would want to have a penalty. I am absolutely not in the mood to talk about Man City. I really want to talk about Genk.”

“Sometimes he is diving,” Guardiola told BBC Sport, speaking after both City and Liverpool pulled off late Premier League comebacks at the weekend. “Sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute. He’s a talent.”

However, Klopp responded that contact was made on Mane inside the box and claimed City’s players would have likewise gone down, before insisting he did not want to talk about Liverpool’s domestic rivals.

“I don’t know how Guardiola could have known about any incident in our game so quickly after their game,” Klopp told a pre-match news conference ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League meeting with Genk.

“Sadio is not a diver. There was a situation in the Villa game when he got contact and went down but there was contact.

“I am 100 percent sure if something like this happened to Man City, they would want to have a penalty. I am absolutely not in the mood to talk about Man City. I really want to talk about Genk.”

Source: Goal.com

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