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What a game! We still cannot get over what transpired at the Etihad Stadium. In a remarkable Champions League night, Tottenham reached their first ever Champions League semis in dramatic fashion. In Harry Kane's absence, Tottenham still managed to score 3 away goals at the Etihad to win the game on away goals.
Pep Guardiola made several changes to the starting lineup from last week, bringing in Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, and Benjamin Mendy. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring in the 4th minute for City before Son Heung-Min canceled out his goal at the other end. Before you know, the game had 5 goals in 21 minutes divided 3-2 among City and Tottenham. Sergio Aguero gave City the lead in the tie with his second-half goal. Against-all-odds, Fernando Llorente scored a controversial goal to tilt the tie towards Tottenham on away goals.
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A last minute winner by Sterling canceled out by VAR interference for offside added more drama to the game, as if we needed any more of it. A spectacular night of European football. A look at three reasons why Manchester City were eliminated on the night.
#3 Defensive sloppiness from Manchester City
We never expected this from Manchester City. Their defense has been absolutely rock-solid this season, maybe that's why they don't concede much. At the Etihad Stadium, they had conceded only three goals in their last 11 games. Tottenham slotted three past them on a single night. Why? Errors.
Taking nothing away from Tottenham's finishing and attacking, City were sloppy in the defense. Take a look at the first goal. Aymeric Laporte cheaply gave the ball away, mistake number one. The shot from Son was on target, Ederson could have saved it, but no, it went past him. It has to go down as a mistake on his part. Immediately after they conceded the first goal, Laporte was at the center of mistake again. A poor first touch by Laporte picked up in the midfield by Spurs and it only took three touches to put it inside the net. Son Heung-Min at it again.
When City finally had crawled their way back, they defended the corner poorly, allowing Llorente all sorts of space to get a touch on the ball. Again, how slow was the ball when it went past Ederson? He didn't even move. Laporte has been so good this season but yesterday he crumbled under pressure. Ederson made a mistake or two. The defense was sloppy on other occasions too which we expect when they play a high line.
But again, things could have been different.
#2 VAR has come to the Champions League
It should be the least of our concerns but let's be honest, Spurs weren't going to go through without the VAR. It is good to have the technology to avoid errors but this was really toying with Manchester City's emotions. The emotions of the players who had left it all on the pitch for 90 minutes, the emotions of the fans who were shouting at top of their voices.
Llorente's goal was highly controversial, and it was utterly preposterous to be allowed as a goal. The ball swung in towards him did not get a clear contact from him. It seemed as if it came off the elbow and then deflected onto the thigh. Llorente's arm snapped back which shows that the ball had contact with some part of the arm. Now, Llorente did not stick the arm out or anything but a goal coming off the arm is a disallowed goal, and there should be no card for it. VAR gifted that goal to Manchester City. Next year, under the new rules, a goal coming off your arm, intentional or unintentional, will not be a goal.
Then came the offside. Yes, Sergio Aguero was offside. But Christian Eriksen passed it back. No Manchester City player touched the ball apart from a totally unintentional deflection from Bernardo Silva. There were no complaints from the Tottenham players, no appeals for offside, City were off to celebrate but VAR disallowed the goal. In this case, it is a 50/50 maybe. In case of defenders, the offside rule is applicable when the ball deflects off the defender and not applicable if it is a deliberate play. Therefore it only makes sense that the opposite is true for attackers. A deliberate pass attempt should be termed as offside, not that deflection yesterday. Again, it is due to the faint clarity of rules on VAR.
However, if I am the referee or VAR and I encounter a 50/50, I give that to Manchester City yesterday. It is almost criminal to toy with the emotions of the players and the fans.
#1 Son Heung-Min takes City on in a dogfight
Manchester City had everything in their favor except for the defensive errors that lead to goals. Once Raheem Sterling pushed the ball into the back of the net, it was a set of dejected Tottenham faces that we saw. If they had dropped their spirits right there, it was going to be the inevitable result, City progresses at home. But one player did not want that to happen, the South Korean, Son Heung-Min.
He was aware of the opportunity when he picked up the ball from Laporte's mistake. Took the shot at goal, put it on target, and you can score with some luck. The second goal was no luck. It was an extraordinary strike into the top corner, curled from outside the box, a solo effort yet again. While Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, all chipped in with goals, Son took the fight to City's defense. He scored two goals, chipped away with precious seconds with his dribbles, defended appreciably.
In front of the fans who were booing the ears out of Tottenham, against a City team unleashing a juggernaut at their opponents, someone had to be responsible for halting the momentum. That, someone, turned out to be Son. Manchester City wouldn't have been knocked out if it wasn't for this man. There are not many in the Spurs team who would score that second goal in a similar fashion. Ajax awaits, but Son won't play in the first leg.
