an illustrated analysis of the Dark Arts on display last night
Hair pulling, headbutting and fighting in the tunnel – how Atletico vs Man City exploded
Sam Lee 6h ago 150
We can’t say that Pep Guardiola didn’t warn us. “We’ll have to do the same to defend our position,” he said last week when asked about Atletico Madrid’s “dark arts”. “It is part of the game, we have to know exactly how to play the minutes.”
After a relatively (relatively!) controversy-free first leg in Manchester, everything exploded in Madrid as Manchester City took a page or two (or 10) from the Diego Simeone manual to help cling on to their 1-0 aggregate lead, as Atletico scrapped, both figuratively and literally, as if their lives depended on it.
The result was, frankly, chaos.
“What is ‘ugly’? What is ‘playing ugly’? I don’t know what playing ugly is,” Guardiola added last week. “My team were winning at Old Trafford 1-0 or 2-0, Bernardo Silva went to the corner and spent four or five minutes in the corner. This is ugly? No, it’s not ugly. It’s being smart, it’s defending with the ball in the final third to not concede counter-attacks and defending our position. That’s all.”
Last week, Guardiola rallied the City ball boys to help combat Atletico’s timewasting but at the Wanda Metropolitano, it was the City players who took as long as they could at throw-ins and goal kicks, staying down after fouls (often, justifiably so) and basically out-Atletico-ing Atletico.
“They push us a lot, they were excellent in the second half, we forgot to play and we were in big, big trouble,” Guardiola said of how the match unfolded, and so they did what they had to do to survive.
After the match, a reporter asked Simeone if he felt his players had crossed the line with some of their antics. “On which occasion?” the Argentinian replied.
Well…
Felipe vs Foden Part One
Felipe, who had an eventful evening, “left one on” Phil Foden after 12 minutes, crashing into the back of the City forward after winning a header. It was a classic case of “he knew exactly what he was doing” as the Brazilian barged through the back of his man and used his shoulder to make contact with the youngster’s head.
Felipe crashes into the back of Phil Foden, setting the tone in the 12th minute
The collision left Foden on the floor for a prolonged spell
Guardiola was unimpressed as Felipe escaped a card
Somehow Felipe was not booked, or worse, and after a spell lying facedown on the turf (surely in genuine pain, rather than an attempt to waste time, which did happen at other times in the game), Foden needed a bandage to continue.
Felipe vs Foden Part Two
City controlled the first half well, created a fine chance to score and restricted Atletico’s chances to score, just as in the first leg, but after half-time Guardiola’s men really struggled to keep the ball.
Atletico came close to equalising but the match will be remembered for the massive brawl in the 89th minute, involving basically everybody on both teams.
After City scrambled to clear another chance clear, Foden did brilliantly to carry the ball about 60 yards up the field and towards the left corner flag, where he was tackled by Felipe, who then swung his legs around after the tackle and connected with the back of Foden’s left leg.
The tackle was clean but Felipe, again, left a bit on Foden
The England international, it must be said, did several rolls and managed to get himself from here…
…to here…
Back on the pitch with the potential to waste more time, Foden had played a blinder in the time-wasting stakes. Oleksandr Zinchenko, an unused substitute, perhaps read the game better than anybody who was playing, however, as those are his legs in the picture above: he was straight on the scene, sensing something was about to go down,
And go down it did.
Savic drags Foden off the pitch
Stefan Savic, a former City defender no less, thought it was time to put his stamp on the evening and try to drag Foden off the pitch, which probably would have saved his team a few seconds, had it not also served to send everybody into fight mode.
Zinchenko gets involved as Savic tries to drag Foden back off the pitch
Marcos Llorente, No 14, was also on the scene but played a fairly passive role in comparison to others
Nathan Ake, City’s No 6, grapples with Savic as the madness unfolds
Fernandinho fans the flamesIt was still going off a minute later, and here you’ll see Fernandinho in his element. Foden is back on his feet after getting treatment and things can start to simmer down. (Meanwhile, Gundogan, No 8, approaches the referee to tell him about Savic pulling Jack Grealish’s hair — more on that later.)
Foden is back on his feet with a City physio
But then Fernandinho essentially forces him back onto the ground, which succeeds in winding up some Atletico players.
A fatherly hand is placed on Foden’s neck
Koke has something to say about all this
So does Geoffrey Kondogbia
Koke and Geoffrey Kondogbia try to get involved but Fernandinho has no problem shoving them away.
The headbuttIn the melee (and it was one of the best melees you’ll see in football) it was somehow missed that Savic headbutted Raheem Sterling — like the reverse of last week’s game, when Matheus Cunha tried to engineer a headbutt from Aymeric Laporte in the dying seconds as Atletico tried to take men down with them.
Savic, lest we forget, was trying to save his side a few seconds just moments before so they could go up the other end and score, but then suddenly decided that the best course of action was to do something completely mad and get himself sent off.
Only the referee and VAR seemed to miss the incident because Savic was only shown a yellow, presumably for dragging Foden. In fairness, it was incredibly difficult to keep an eye on everything that was going on because it really was kicking off left, right and centre — although even Peter Walton, the much-maligned former referee who now advises BT Sport on the officiating, spotted it.
Sterling was not hurt by the headbutt
Reinildo, second left, calming things down by grabbing Sterling around the throat
When the mild-mannered Gundogan looks angry you know you’ve done something wrong
A thumbs up for the yellow card as Savic expertly avoids anything more serious
Felipe did see red, however, earning a second yellow card, presumably for the follow-through on Foden, who had been taking a kicking all evening, particularly in the first half. It was Felipe’s third red card of the season and he didn’t go quietly.
Felipe waves his hand in the referee’s face to protest his innocence
Look at Savic’s face!
Some more finger-wagging sometime later – look at how long this has all gone on
Nathan Ake was also booked, seemingly for being the main City player to get to grips with Savic after he grabbed Foden.
Grealish winds up Atletico and gets his hair pulled in returnIn the first leg, Atletico seemed to target Grealish late in the game, with Angel Correa kicking the ball at him as he lay on the ground, sparking another brawl, albeit nowhere near the scale of Wednesday’s.
Grealish didn’t get onto the pitch in Madrid but he was caught approaching Savic, grabbing the defender’s attention and telling him matter of factly, “You’re a c***,” which was later pixellated when BT Sport showed the clip in the UK.
So Savic pulled his hair.
Seriously how many bookings was he trying to get?
Nine minutes were added on but in the end, 12 were played, in large part due to the brawl but also because Riyad Mahrez was booked for taking too much time at a free kick and Foden may or may not have heard the whistle and delayed Atletico taking a 96th-minute free kick.
It was noisy inside the stadium but Foden most likely knew what he was doing
Foden enjoys himselfOf course, not everybody will have found this entertaining, but Foden was having a great time by the end, perhaps the only City fan with a smile on their face. This was when Simeone and one of his staff ended up on the pitch, which earned Simeone himself a yellow card.
Simeone and one of his staff entered the field of play
‘What on earth is going on?’ he seemed to be saying
No caption necessary
City really were hanging on by that point and it took a save from Ederson to deny Correa, with 101 minutes 40 seconds on the clock, to keep them ahead in the tie.
The tunnel fracasEventually, the referee blew the final whistle but that was never going to be the end of it.
As the players made their way to the dressing rooms, Savic caught up with Grealish and exchanged words with him, as City staff and Ruben Dias tried to intervene.
Savic tries to approach Grealish in the tunnel
Savic might not be getting invited to any future City legend events
After this came perhaps the most remarkable chain of events of the evening, with Atletico right-back Sime Vrsaljko throwing a bottle at Kyle Walker.
Guardiola was apparently pelted with bottles thrown by fans earlier on, which actually happened to Simeone when his side won at Old Trafford in the last round
The bottle in flight
The City players reacted fairly calmly on this occasion but Vrsaljko was seriously vexed, and was scrambling to get away from his team-mates and stuck into the opposition.
Vrsaljko lunges towards Walker, with some suggestions the Croatian attempts to spit at the City full-back.
Vrsaljko threatens Walker
He’s not far from planting a pretty vicious headbutt on one of his coaches
The Croatian has to be restrained further as he makes his way up the steps
After the match, a Spanish reporter asked Guardiola how his side, famous for their beautiful football, resorted to tactics more associated with Simeone’s men.
Pointing out that Atletico had been the better team in the second half, he replied: “We didn’t have another way.”
As he put it a week ago, in defence of the Spanish champions, it’s not winning ugly, “it’s being smart”.
This was one of their smartest triumphs to date.
