Pep Guardiola refused to be drawn on Monaco’s controversial late penalty after seeing his Manchester City side pegged back in a 2-2 Champions League draw against Monaco.
Former Tottenham defender Eric Dier scored from the spot in the 90th minute after taking a boot in the face from Nico Gonzalez as the pair stretched to reach a free-kick.
Replays showed Gonzalez got the ball first but, having also caught Dier, he and City were in trouble once VAR Cesar Soto Grado referee Jesus Gil Manzano to consult the pitchside monitor.
Asked if he would give his opinion of the incident, Guardiola said: “No. I have nothing to say to the Spanish referees.”
There were ugly scenes as the referee was trying to watch the replay. City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma raced to the bench to speak to his coaches ahead of the anticipated spot-kick, but took the ball with him and Monaco’s players ran after him.
In the resulting melee at least one Monaco coach was sent off, with City captain Bernardo Silva booked on his return to his former club.
Guardiola’s bigger frustration will have been his side’s inability to kill off Monaco, having twice led through goals from Erling Haaland, who marked his 50th Champions League appearance with a brace that took his tally to 52 in the competition.
Phil Foden struck the crossbar in the first half and Tijjani Reijnders did likewise in the second as a decisive third goal would not come.
“In football you have to win with the result,” Guardiola said. “If you analyse the game there were many things that were really good. Step by step we will be better but we had many chances. Phil in the first half and many players played really good.
“We conceded almost nothing. We created chances, they defended so deep and tight, that it wasn’t expecting for the way they play but we adjusted and we played really good. When it’s close, you have to defend and we take the point.”
Rodri started the game having missed Saturday’s 5-1 win over Burnley after feeling pain in his right knee, in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament to miss most of last season.
The Spain midfielder was involved in a collision just before the hour and went down holding that knee, playing only a few more minutes before he was replaced by Gonzalez. Guardiola said there was no injury concern and that the decision was tactical, describing Rodri’s condition as “perfect”.
Dier’s penalty was his second goal since joining Monaco in the summer from Bayern Munich and coach Adi Hutter admitted it might have surprised Donnarumma to see the former England defender step up to take it after Ansu Fati, ahead of him in the pecking order, had been replaced.
“Eric took responsibility for the situation and did it really well and I was happy for him,” he said.
“In our history over the last three years we were not the best in penalties. We missed so many. In practice I saw Eric is a safe kicker and also with his age, his experience, that was the situation to kick and he did it fantastically.”
