Raheem Sterling apologised to Hungarian referee Viktor
Kassai after winning a comical penalty that was clearly not a foul in
Wednesday's 6-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling goes down and is later awarded a penalty. (Source: Reuters)
With City 1-0 up in the first half, Sterling burst into the
area and tripped over as he tried to dig his foot under the ball to chip
Donetsk keeper Andriy Pyatov.
Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling apologised to
Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai after winning a comical penalty that was
clearly not a foul in Wednesday’s 6-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar
Donetsk.
There was no player challenging him, let alone any contact,
yet the experienced Kassai pointed to the spot.
“I went to chip the ball and don’t know what happened. I
didn’t feel contact. I scuffed the ball. Apologies to the ref,” Sterling said
after the game.
Penalty every day of the week and given too. Correct decision there, absolute stone wall pen. No way that should not have been given. The way his foot attacks his own ankle is absolutely disgusting. Blatant penalty for Sterling there 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/ixUZbv4WqZ— 'Drawty' (@DrawtyDevil) 7 November 2018
Shakhtar’s Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca laughed when he
was asked about the decision.
“It is difficult to speak about a penalty after a result
like that — but it’s ridiculous, that’s all I can say,” he said.
“Everyone saw it, but it is not because of the penalty we
lost the game,” he added.
City manager Pep Guardiola agreed that the referee had got
it badly wrong and said the incident highlighted the need for the video
assistant referee (VAR) system to be introduced.
“We realised it wasn’t a penalty. We don’t like to score in
that situation,” said Guardiola, who conceded Sterling could have told the
referee at the time.
“You know VAR and what it is — the referee must be helped
because they don’t want to make mistakes.
“The game is so quick, so fast these days. It would take 10
seconds for somebody to say something to the referee,” he added.
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