{"id":801355,"date":"2026-10-13T15:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801355\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:28:09","slug":"manchester-city-rule-breaches-enzo-maresca-defends-anfield-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801355\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City rule breaches: Enzo Maresca defends Anfield celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head coach Enzo Maresca has reacted to criticism of Manchester City<\/a>‘s celebrations after their victory at Liverpool<\/a> by saying: “What do you want us to do?”<\/p>\n

Sunday’s match at Anfield was City’s first game after an independent commission found the club guilty of charges relating to breaches of Premier League financial rules.<\/p>\n

After the 3-0 win,<\/a> Erling Haaland looked close to tears in front of City’s fans – which included his father Alf-Inge – while Maresca pumped his fists in jubilation.<\/p>\n

“Criticised for what?” replied Maresca when asked for his response to City’s celebrations being questioned by pundits and the media. <\/p>\n

“We work every day to win games. It’s the only thing that we can think about and be focused on.<\/p>\n

“The rest? It’s just things from outside that we need to deal with – but we were so, so, so happy on the pitch, and you cannot imagine inside the changing room.”<\/p>\n

The Italian added: “If I am an Arsenal<\/a> fan or United fan and you are a City fan I say: ‘hey, my friend you cheat’. So it is probably more tough for them [the fans], but we were happy inside the changing room.<\/p>\n

“We were very happy celebrating the three points because it is very difficult at Anfield.”<\/p>\n

Maresca was speaking on Tuesday at a news conference before Wednesday’s Champions League game with European champions Paris St-Germain.<\/p>\n

It will be City’s first match at home since the guilty verdict, which City have appealed against.<\/p>\n

Captain Ruben Dias also defended the post-match celebrations at Anfield.<\/p>\n

“I stand by the manager’s words,” said the centre-back. “It was a win at Anfield. It was a show of how much it means to us.”<\/p>\n

Asked for his reaction to the guilty verdict, the Portugal defender added: “We are very calm and we trust the club.”<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola, who delivered 20 trophies during 10 years in charge before stepping aside at the end of last season, is expected to return to Etihad Stadium for the match.<\/p>\n

“This has been his house for 10 years with what he has done here,” added Maresca. “It’s exciting for everyone, for the fans.”<\/p>\n

It is not known whether Guardiola will address the fans or his former players before the game.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard posted a message on social media after his former club were found guilty of financial breaches.<\/p>\n

“I want every single Manchester City<\/a> fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“Let me be clear: we will get through this together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Enzo Maresca has reacted to criticism of Manchester City‘s celebrations after their victory at Liverpool by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-801355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}