FEYENOORD V CITY BRING IT ON!
JOHN Stones says that the sight of prone team-mate Ederson bleeding on the Etihad Stadium pitch was enough to convince him Sadio Mane deserved a red card.
The controversy has raged ever since the Liverpool striker flattened the City goalkeeper during the Blues’ 5-0 win on Saturday.
And Ederson has made a remarkable recovery, and is preparing to play against Feyenoord with a scrum cap protecting the eight stitches in two facial wounds.
But Stones says he was sure that referee Jon Moss made the right call in dismissing Mane for dangerous play.
“I think it’s been blown out of proportion with people’s opinions – some have said not,” said Stones when asked if the decision was correct.
“But from my opinion when I saw him on the floor, and the cut was bleeding, I think it was the correct decision.
“He didn’t do it intentionally but he’s caught him at force and the referee made the correct decision.”
But the England defender, sure to start at De Kuip with skipper Vincent Kompany injured, paid tribute to Ederson’s response – and his bravery.
“Ederson has got on with it straight away,” he said. “After the game in the changing room he was talking as if nothing had happened. That shows his character.
“He wants to be around the team, in that environment. I’ve not asked him much. Everyone has seen his face, the stitches, the swelling but he’s put a scrum cap on and he’s been training.”
City will need that kind of spirit when they walk out into a fervent atmosphere at the Feyenoord stadium, with Ronald Koeman warning Pep Guardiola that the noise and intimidation inside the ground are ‘incomparable.’
But Stones, despite a patchy first season with the Blues, played in nine of their ten Champions league games, his first experience of the competition following his £47m move from Everton.
His place has not been certain this season, but Kompany’s injury means he will be called upon in a squad, which is still short in terms of defensive numbers.
He said: “I have to keep fighting, keep working hard in training. There is strong competition, everyone wants to play. We have to play well to keep our spot and keep in the England squad.”
And Stones admitted that the excitement factor raps up whenever City board the plane for another European adventure, having fulfilled a dream by facing Lionel Messi in the Nou Camp, and in City’s 3-1 win in the return
leg. Many English players have flagged up the differences between playing in the Premier League, and the Champions League – but what struck Stones about his debut season among the Euro elite? “The quality of the opposition,” he said. “I’ve been in the Premier League a few seasons, and you play English teams, but you get that excitement factor of going abroad and playing the big teams, like Barcelona. “Beating them at the Etihad is one of the best games I’ve played in. Hopefully, I can bring that into this campaign and we can better ourselves from last season.”