Bernardo Silva accuses Eric Dier of diving for late penalty leveller against Manchester City | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva accused Eric Dier of diving in a playful interview after AS Monaco’s 2-2 draw with Pep Guardiola’s side on Wednesday evening.

Controversy made its way to the Stade Louis II in injury-time on Wednesday as Nico Gonzalez appeared to make contact with Dier’s head in an attempt to clear the ball away from an AS Monaco free-kick played into the Manchester City box.

Despite Gonzalez clearly getting the ball before making any contact with the former Bayern Munich man, a VAR review deemed that the Manchester City man had committed a foul and a penalty was subsequently awarded to AS Monaco.

Dier stepped up and converted the spot kick past Gianluigi Donnarumma, with the headlines dominated by the referee’s decision to overturn his on-pitch decision that helped Adolf Hütter’s side salvage a point against their English opponents.

It was an emotional return for Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva to his former club on Wednesday, with Silva nearly leading the Blues to their second UEFA Champions League group-stage win on the French Riviera.

Despite the late leveller, Silva reflected positively on his side’s display in a tricky test away in Europe as the Blues now look to Sunday’s Premier League trip to Brentford in their attempt to return to winning ways and build on their post-international break run of results.

“Overall I think it was not a bad performance,” Silva said to Manchester City’s official channels after the 2-2 draw. “Of course we need to be better at some things.

“And in a moment where I felt the team was quite well, controlling the result, and the game, it’s when we conceded the second that it’s a bit frustrating to get out of here with just one point.

“Some decisions didn’t help, I think it was quite a weird game – everything felt like it was against us. But it’s football, sometimes you have days like this.”

Silva is renowned for being a wind-up merchant and Manchester City’s captain aimed a cheeky dig at Dier for his seemingly theatrical reaction to Gonzalez’s right shinpad in his face, when Dier got none of the ball and demanded a penalty kick.

“Eric Dier there, he’s known for diving,” said Silva to TNT Sports in a playful tone upon bumping into the AS Monaco man in the media room at the Stade Louis II after the 2-2 draw.

Dier made light of Silva’s comments in his own TNT Sports post-match interview and Silva’s comments were not taken to heart by the 31-year-old, who has come up against the Portuguese and Manchester City many a time when he donned the white of Tottenham.