VIDEO STARS
It’s a VAR farce but Sterling grabs late winner as 10-man City beat Schalke
RAHEEM STERLING rescued 10-man Manchester City with a 90th-minute winner after a VAR fiasco had threatened to derail their Champions League ambitions at Schalke.
City were 2-1 down with five minutes to go before Leroy Sane’s thunderbolt levelled and then Sterling struck in stoppage time. Nicolas Otamendi had been sent off for a second yellow card. He and Fernandinho both miss the return leg after conceding first-half penalties, controversially awarded by the video referee after long delays.
THERE were 78 minutes gone when Leroy Sane was introduced; 85 when he gave Manchester City what they deserved. Why he had to wait that long, heaven knows.
Sane is one of Schalke’s favourite sons. He started here, made his name here as a sensation in German football, and because he did not leave them for a bigger Bundesliga club, they still love him around these parts.
So when he was introduced with City inexplicably trailing, there was none of the animosity traditionally reserved for deserters. Even his equaliser was greeted, not with anger, but mild resignation. Schalke knew they were a tad fortunate to be leading. Sane had only given City the minimum they merited. And it was some goal, too.
Maybe they wouldn’t have been quite so philosophical had they known what was to befall them in the final minute of the game, but there you go. City were the best team, and their two-goal fightback came when down to 10 men after Nicolas Otamendi was sent off for a second bookable offence, a foul on Guido Burgstaller and then a stuThe pidly angry reaction to the freekick. Nobody can argue they did not work extremely hard for this.
But back to Sane. What a goal got City back into this game. It was a free-kick, 25 yards out, which Sane took in an old-fashioned style but with incredible panache. A full throttle run-up, a huge left foot strike and the ball up and over the wall, in with the merest flick off the inside of the post, goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann powerless to prevent it.
The winner was less spectacular but just as impressively effective. A long punt by goalkeeper Ederson saw Raheem Sterling go shoulder to shoulder with defender Bastian Oczipa, who fell wanted a foul, didn’t get it, and left the England man to finish smartly. What a comeback just when it looked as if Pep Guardiola was about to lose his first tie to a German side. And to VAR, too. The new process wasn’t wrong, necessarily. It just wasn’t very satisfactory.
Referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande wanted to have a look at his monitor, but the TV was on the blink. whole process of giving a Schalke penalty took close to four minutes, and few inside the ground had a clue what was going on. By the end of it, Schalke were level and maybe the decision was merited, but there was little here that will convince the sceptics of VAR’s worth.
For much of the first half it looked as if Manchester City could put this tie away before the second leg. By half-time, they trailed 2-1. How? A combination of rashness on the part of Fernandinho and the vagaries of VAR.
Schalke benefited from two penalties and not only the big calls and the goals went against Manchester City. They also lost two key players — Fernandinho and Otamendi — for the return. What initially appeared a walk in the park, ended up as a very bad 45 minutes indeed for City.
It started so well, too. In the seventh minute, an intricately worked free-kick, clever footwork skirting around City’s lack of height, ended with David Silva whipping in a cross met by Sergio Aguero and forcing a good save from Fahrmann.
Schalke were playing one up, at best, and allowing City possession by dropping deeper and deeper. Eventually, Schalke lost concentration and a goal.
With 19 minutes gone Fahrmann was caught in two minds by foolishness on the part of his teammates at the opposite end of the field. Aymeric Laporte went up for a challenge with Schalke’s Mark Uth, which he won. Schalke wanted a foul, which it wasn’t, Uth stayed down as if injured, which he wasn’t. The ball found its way back to Fahrmann, who seemed undecided whether to kick for touch and allow Uth treatment; which he didn’t need.
Instead, he hit a short pass to defender Salif Sane who prepared to receive it with the relish he might stolen goods. David Silva nipped in, nicked the ball and squared it to Aguero, who only had to roll it into an empty net.
It was, however, a save from Fahrmann that changed the game. He kept out a low, curling free-kick from Kevin De Bruyne after 33 minutes that, had it gone in, would have given City a two-goal lead and forced a kick-off restart. And that would have left Schalke without the opportunity to keep the ball in play from Fahrmann’s save and mount a rare sortie upfield, which ended in the penalty decision that got them level.
Perhaps it was a penalty, but it was certainly a mess. Daniel Caligiuri’s shot looked goalbound until it struck Otamendi. Schalke players surrounded referee Carlos del Cerro Grande, screaming for a penalty. This seemed to do the trick as he called for a VAR ruling. UEFA said fans would be kept fully informed of developments without being shown an actual replay of the incident. That didn’t happen.
We know VAR was in effect because the players mooned around or followed the official like a gang of unsubtle pickpockets, while he walked around with his finger in one ear, as if he was appearing on a particularly hammy episode of Star Trek. Then he called both captains together — and Fahrmann does the job for Schalke, meaning he was summoned from 70 yards away — to order them to tell their players to stop crowding him. Why would they, when exactly that strategy had proved so successful in getting VAR involved in the first place?
Finally, he was handed down his decision. Penalty to Schalke. Otamendi looked to be trying to get his arm out of the way but, bottom line, he failed. Seen them given, as any pundit will say.
Finally, when Nabil Bentaleb was standing over the ball UEFA felt confident enough to inform the paying spectators a penalty had been awarded via VAR. Otamendi was booked, Bentaleb went right, City goalkeeper Ederson left. Somehow, Schalke were level. The whole process had taken more than four minutes.
Seven minutes later Schalke were ahead. Another rare-as-hen’s-teeth expedition into the City penalty area produced unnecessary action from Fernandinho, who defended a free-kick by grappling with Salif Sane. This time Del Cerro Grande spotted the offence without assistance. He booked Fernandinho —
who will now miss the return — and Bentaleb stepped up again. This time he went left, as did Ederson again, but the connection was too good. SCHALKE 04: Fahrmann, Caligiuri, Bruma, Sane, Nastasic, Oczipka, Serdar, Bentaleb, McKennie (Skrzybski 77), Uth (Harit 87), Mendyl (Burgstaller 65). Subs Not Used: Nubel, Rudy, Matondo, Kutucu. Booked: Uth, Sane, Burgstaller. Goals: Bentaleb 38 pen, 45 pen. MAN CITY: Ederson, Walker, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Laporte, De Bruyne (Zinchenko 87), Gundogan, Silva (Kompany 69), Sterling, Aguero (Sane 78), Bernardo Silva. Subs Not Used: Muric, Danilo, Mahrez, Foden. Sent Off: Otamendi (68). Booked: Otamendi, Fernandinho, Ederson. Goals: Aguero 18, Sane 85, Sterling 90. Ref: Carlos Del Cerro (Spain).