Wayne Rooney delivers Virgil van Dijk Man City goal verdict as Premier League sent clear message

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Pep Guardiola celebrated his 1,000th match as a manager in style as his Man City side beat Liverpool - but there was controversy at the Etihad

Wayne Rooney believes that Liverpool were wrongly denied an equaliser against Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola’s side turned up the heat in the title race with a statement 3-0 victory at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon. Erling Haaland opened the scoring before Nico Gonzalez doubled his side’s advantage in first-half injury time.

The outstanding Jeremy Doku then completed the scoring just after the hour mark. However, Liverpool thought they had equalised through Virgil van Dijk.

The Dutchman headed home a corner, but the goal was ruled out for offside, with Andy Robertson adjudged to be interfering with play. However, Rooney believes the wrong decision was made, saying: "The Van Dijk goal should have stood.

"I don't think Andy Robertson delayed Donnarumma diving. The City keeper can see the ball the whole way, so I think that was the wrong decision."

Speaking about the call after the game, Liverpool boss Arne Slot said: "At the moment you score the goal you are looking at the linesman.

“I couldn't see it properly. Then we were celebrating and afterwards I saw it took 14 seconds before the linesman raised his flag.

“For me, the wrong decision was given on the pitch and then it was also given in the review. That's not to say it would have impacted the result because City were much better.

“Even we had gone in at 1-1, they could have won but they didn't have to because they were 2-0 and then 3-0 up.

"Sometimes going in at 1-1 can give you something different in the second half. We solved some issues were having in the second half.

“And then an unbelievable goal from Doku put us 3-0 down, but I still saw a team that wanted to get back into it."

While Van Dijk himself said: "In football the officials are deciding the key decisions and we have to deal with it on the pitch. There is no point discussing this from my point of view. The reality is that we lost 3-0 and that is a big blow.

"It doesn't matter what I say [about the goal] because anything I say will be in the media and the whole international break will be about my comment on the decision. I just focus on the fact we lost. You guys can debate if it should have stood."