Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, refused to criticise Riyad Mahrez, after he missed a penalty in Sunday’s goalless draw with Liverpool.
Mahrez had the chance to secure a narrow victory for City at Anfield, after Leroy Sane was felled in the area by Virgil van Dijk.
But the former Leicester City star blazed his spot-kick over the bar.
Despite the shocking penalty, Guardiola said: “[Riyad] had the courage and the balls to take the penalty, in training he shoots perfect penalties but sometimes it happens.
“The usual taker is Sergio Aguero but he wasn’t there. We played so well so if you want to analyse the result it was okay.
“Last season we lost here, and this season we drew, maybe next season we will win.”
On his team’s overall performance at Anfield, Guardiola added: “We competed and we controlled them in terms of the counter attack with their front three.
“Our back four was so good and we enjoyed a lot of patient build up, but we didn’t create much after that. It’s a good result.
“We tried to win and we didn’t concede at Anfield which is quite special. We had our chance and we tried to be ourselves.”
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