Fracas In The Tunnel As Atletico Stars Square Up Against City Counterpart

Written By Jacobs Dunga

There were confrontations in the tunnel following the quarter final clash which saw City progress at the expense of the Spanish side.

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Manchester City held out for a goalless draw away to Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter final tie to progress 1-0 on aggregate.

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The match wasn’t devoid of controversy as Diego Simeone’s men had a valid penalty shout waved away without consulting the VAR.

The match had a frantic conclusion as nine yellow cards and a red card was shown in the last ten minutes of the game.

Former City defender, Stefan Savic was at the center of it all as he had a confrontation with substitute Jack Grealish while also thrusting his head towards Raheem Sterling after an incident with Phil Foden.

Video footage from French TV RMC Sport showed Savic being pulled back by teammates as he seemed to approach Grealish who was in turn ushered in by his teammates. Sime Vrsaljko targeted Aymeric Laporte but was held back by teammates in the tunnel brawl.

Former Manchester United stars, Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves were live on BT Sport where they described the on pitch incident.

“What Jack’s said there, what we can’t say here live on air, gets said about nine times out of 10 by a player on the pitch at some point most games,” said Ferdinand over footage of Grealish mouthing a swear word.

“There’s verbals that go on and you have a little bit of back and forth with people. It shouldn’t result in that. Savic will look back on that and think it’s not his finest moment.”

Hargreaves added: “Savic was delighted with the yellow card he thought ‘I’ll take that!’ The emotional control of Man City was spectacular during that chaos.”

Ferdinand added: “We need to commend Man City for the way they dealt with the situation. It was difficult. Forget the crowd, those moments when you’re being antagonised, poking you, but they managed to come away without anyone being involved too much.

“We heard about after the game, but the game had finished. We don’t quite know what happened. Foden and Sterling. Foden is a young boy. It’s a good experience for them in some way. To be able to control your emotion.”

Atletico would be licking their wounds already as a second half goal conceded from the first leg in England remained the only goal of the two legged tie which sees Manchester City progress to face Real Madrid in the semi finals.

Meanwhile…

Manchester City defender John Stones when interviewed after the match decided to keep his comments to how his team handled the tensed situation instead of getting drawn on the controversies.

The England defender lasted the whole duration of the game and was instrumental in his team keeping a clean sheet over both legs of the tie.

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“We know they sometimes try and make things happen like that,” he said.

“I thought we dealt with it really well. It’s not nice to talk about that, I don’t want to dwell on it too much because over two legs I think we played incredible against such an experienced team in what they do, in such a low block.

“I’m so proud of the lads today on how we kept control and our tempers. It’s so easy to get drawn in, so happy to be through, great night.”

De Bruyne’s brilliant goal in the first leg happened to be the decider which sent City to their second successive semi final appearance.

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