Guardiola hails referee Madley for disallowing Mahrez penalty

Pep Guardiola praised referee Bobby Madley for
disallowing Riyad Mahrez's goal in Manchester
City's 2-1 win over Leicester City on Saturday.
Mahrez converted a penalty in the second half but
the strike was annulled and a free-kick awarded to
the home side after he accidentally kicked the ball
against his standing foot before it went in.
Guardiola was impressed that the official was able
to spot the infringement and apply the law
correctly, telling Sky Sports: "Well done. It's the
first or second time I've seen that in my life. We
have to look after our boots."
Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare agreed that the
decision was correct but claimed the penalty could
have been retaken due to encroachment into the
area from City players.
"To the letter of the law it's a double touch, but he
could bring it back for an encroachment from
Manchester City so there's a bit of injustice,"
Shakespeare said. "It's bad luck from our point of
view. Two City players were in the penalty box."
The incident was one of a handful of controversies
in the match, with Leicester players furious that
City's opening goal was allowed to stand after
Raheem Sterling swung a foot at the ball from an
offside position.
Asked about that moment, Guardiola simply said:
"I don't know if Raheem touched the ball. The
referee's never spoken about that. He's in his
office, you can go and ask him."
Shakespeare, however, insisted offside should have
been given as Sterling should have been
considered active even if he did not touch the ball.
"Once he makes the play of the ball, he becomes
active," he said. "It should have been offside. He's
really trying to block Christian [Fuchs] too."
The result puts City into third place and a top-four
finish will be secured if they take four points from
remaining games against West Brom and Watford.
"We have two games left and it was so important,
against the last champions. When you play against
them you understand why they were champions,"
Guardiola added.
"In the first half we were good and it was a shame
to concede an amazing goal. Everything happened
in the last 10 minutes.
"It's not easy to win games in a row. Now we rest
for Tuesday."

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