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Pep Guardiola has appeared to backtrack on comments made about Liverpool forward Sadio Mane.

Guardiola has been speaking ahead of the Champions League at Atalanta and gave a detailed answer when asked why he'd taken aim at Mane in the aftermath of Man City's win over Southampton.

Mane scored the all-important winner for Liverpool against Aston Villa at the weekend as the Reds came from behind to win 2-1 and retain a six-point lead over City at the top.

This led to a bizarre dig by Guardiola at Mane following the match as the City boss accused the Liverpool forward of 'diving' ahead of the clash between the two sides this weekend.

Guardiola said: "Sometimes he's (Mane) diving, sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute. He's a talent."

Guardiola clarified the comment when speaking in Italy, and appeared to backtrack on his claim about Mane.

"My son and my daughter always when Liverpool win in the last minutes say Liverpool are lucky," Guardiola told the MEN.

"I tell them not. What Liverpool has done this season and last season many times is because they have this incredible quality to fight until the end.

"That’s why I said to my players - not just my son and daughter- that it is not lucky. Sometimes at 94 against Leicester with the penalty it was like ‘wow’.

"That was the intention for my comment but it was far from my intention to say that Sadio Mane is that type of player. Even with that, the referee and the VAR said penalty. Maybe I was wrong to think it wasn’t a penalty.

"I was the wrong guy to think it wasn't a penalty, like Jurgen says he knows Sadio better than me. With Jurgen he tries to be positive, when he says it’s not like this."