What a game. Have to say Monaco has some great talents. They really hurt City the first 70 minutes. Luckily a game is 90 minutes.
About the referee controversy: I actually thought he was brilliant. In my mind, Aguero was a little too eager to go down and that's why he didn't get the penalty. I wonder if his reputation in Spain is the reason behind his yellow card.
98% of penalties wouldn't be given if your "eager" rule existed.
Having watched the goals last night and again this morning we didn't do much wrong for their goals. Yes, we could have got tighter to the ex Rag for his header, but Dihno was all over the place; he isn't a Left Back so we can give him a bit of slack here. Otamendi and Stones made errors. The second goal for the Rag I though he eased Stones to the ground as he was off balance more than Stones dived in; very clever forward play and immensely difficult to defend against. He made up for it with the goal though, and never hid all night.
Our goals were all good. Aguero was in danger of getting hooked at HT, but he came out in the second half a different player. He practically ran the show. Once Zabba came on we just clicked into gear.
Aguero pen? Nailed on.
Otamendi challenge? Not 100%; probably penalty, but why did it take so long? Same official that kept his hands in his pocket when Aguero was felled obviously plucked up the courage to open his mouth. Definitely something suspicious going on there.
Willy? 100% not his fault for their headed goal. Dhino should have anticipated the out ball, and we would have been away up the field. Unfortunately he was caught sleeping, and subsequently they scored. Penalty save? Not the best pen in the world, but he held on to it and changed the outcome of the game; at 1-3, we are dead and buried.
Over all a good win against an incredibly fast attacking team.
100% agree. You can dive when you are fouled, you can fall over when are not fouled. If a yellow is given for every dive irrespective of if it is a foul or not and a pen is given for every foul irrespective of it being a dive or not, it would stop a lot of this nonsense and make the decision making easier and clearer for the ref. The fact that you don't have a chance of getting a pen if you don't go down is putting players like Sterling and to a lesser degree Aguero (that is players who run at pace into the box a lot) in a difficult situation. His first thought should be try and create or score a goal knowing that if someone fouls him he will get a pen if he is illegally stopped.My view on this is that one thing I cannot understand is why in football people think that possible foul incidents can only have a binary outcome. It's entirely possible to get fouled and dive/exaggerate at the same time. Something that has been acknowledged in other sports for years now. I think a penalty and a yellow for Subasic and a yellow for Aguero would have been a good decision.
Bastards. I had Stones last goal at 50/1.
After Falcao's stunning chip, our 5th was the best goal of the night. Beautiful move.
Silva was mesmerising, again. Such a terrier with total control.
Sane has the balance of Darcey Bussell and when in full flow is a joy to watch.
Get Zabba on.
Think its time City considered putting a defibrillator under every seat. My ticker won't take much more of that