Klopp, Guardiola react to Mane red card, Man City blowout

Sadio Mane’s high boot cost Liverpool its hopes for a comeback at Man City on Saturday, and means the Senegalese attacker will miss three matches for a straight red card.

Jurgen Klopp was furious with Jon Moss’ decision to send Mane off, and was nearly put in the stands himself.

[ MORE: Match recap | 3 things ]

Plenty of voters in our poll agreed that Mane should not have been sent off despite what -- opinion alert -- seemed a pretty straight-forward, letter-of-the-law dangerous play.

One thing is for sure, Klopp and we have differing interpretations of “high":

“The referee was close to sending me to the stands so I had no power. I said to the fourth official that I didn’t think it was a red card. Hopefully it is not a serious injury but whatever happens it is unlucky. The foot was not that high, the goalkeeper came out to head the ball.”

Pep Guardiola wouldn’t commit to a verdict on Mane’s sending off (presumably he’s talking about impact on the match, though he could be referring to Ederson’s head injury):

“Mane didn’t see him, he was looking at the ball but the impact was huge. I don’t know if it was a red card. I didn’t speak about the decision when we had Kyle Walker sent off against Everton so I will not now.”

It seems we are not in the majority -- it’s patently absurd to imagine that an elite footballer who lifts his foot to an unusual position isn’t aware of a charging goalkeeper -- but City is in first place and the five-goal margin sinks the Reds down to zero for the season. Something tells me they’ll have a match or two along the way to fix that.

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