Manchester City came from behind to seal a crucial 2-1 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Isco opened the scoring for the hosts in the 60th minute, but Gabriel Jesus’ header in the 74th minute equalised things.
It was followed by Kevin De Bruyne’s penalty five minutes later and that was sufficient for Pep Guardiola’s side to walk away from Santiago Bernabéu with two crucial away goals.
The La Liga giants finished the match with 10 men as Sergio Ramos was shown a straight red in the 86th minute and will miss the return leg at the Etihad. The manner in which the tie ended didn’t go down well with AS journalist Tomás Roncero.
Roncero was highly critical of Italian referee Daniele Orsato. He claims Real Madrid were moving closer to converting the scoreline from 1-0 to 2-0, but ‘Orsato came to the rescue’.
For the first goal, De Bruyne’s cross from the left beat Ramos and the Brazilian headed it past Thibaut Courtois. Roncero claims Jesus pushed the Real Madrid defender and this restricted the Spaniard from clearing the ball.
City’s second goal came from the spot after Dani Carvajal mistimed his tackle on Raheem Sterling inside the box. Roncero claims it was the right decision from the referee to award City a penalty.
However, he’s unhappy with Ramos’ sending off. The centre-back was given his marching orders after he brought down Jesus outside the box.
Roncero gives his version of the incident and explains it by stating, ‘Sergio touches his arm like someone who greets a neighbour with courtesy. Minimum contact, but Gabriel Jesus dropped as if a truck had hit him.’
The outcome of the match turned in Manchester City’s favour in the final quarter of the game, but Roncero was critical of the referee and he stated ‘Orsato became a Citizen’ and earned his moment of glory’.
Regarding the match official, Roncero further added: “The Italian, who is the most anti-bullish referee in the Champions League, as the statistics say, came up and made it clear that being a protagonist for annoying Madrid is cool and should give you a lot of free publicity…”
Manchester City were easily the better side, and there’s clear bitterness coming from Madrid.
