Pep Guardiola has compared the decision to award Real Madrid a penalty on Tuesday to the controversial call made during Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final clash with Tottenham back in 2019.
Spurs progressed to the semi-final at City’s expense in 2019 after an end-to-end game that was filled with drama.
The Lilywhites carried a 1-0 lead into the second leg at the Etihad and after the home side scored early, Tottenham hit back with two quickfire goals from Son Heung-min.
It looked like Guardiola’s men had the game wrapped up after they came back to lead 4-2 but Fernando Llorente found the back of the net to send Spurs through on away goals.
There was some controversy around the goal, with slow-motion replays showing that the ball had hit Llorente’s arm and, to rub salt into their wounds, the home side also had a late goal disallowed due to offside.
After seeing Madrid convert a late penalty to narrow the deficit to just one goal going into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, Guardiola compared the decision to the one in the Spurs clash.
The City boss said about the penalty decision (via Football.London): “It is what it is. We got knocked out of the Champions League against Tottenham with a similar decision.
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“Today for us it was a handball so it has happened to us, but these situations happen and we have to understand it and in this competition, it can decide games.
“This competition is about details. All we can do is perform. After the opponents are so good. Real Madrid punish you.”
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It is not surprising that the clash in 2019 is still fresh in Guardiola’s mind, given the sheer drama of the encounter. In some respects, the game was probably more entertaining for neutrals than the semifinal against Ajax. The battle and fight we showed to beat City over two legs without our best player in Kane was quite unbelievable.
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