Yaya Toure retreated to the dressing room, unable to watch. Gareth Barry’s eyes were on the sky, apparently watching the Premier League trophy in a helicopter, flying into the arms of Manchester United. And Roberto Mancini was stalking the touchline, cursing his players and sowing the seeds of his ultimate Manchester City downfall.
When it comes to drama, to the ultimate transportation from the depths of despair to the dreamy heights of football delight, nothing compares to the events of May 13, 2012, ten years ago today.
Tears of frustration were streaming down the cheeks of grown men inside the Etihad Stadium, and wherever on the planet there was a small Blue corner, as the final home game of the 2011-12 Premier League season boiled down to added time, and City were trailing 2-1, needing to win to hold off Manchester United, who had just won their final game, at Sunderland.
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Everyone knows the rest of the script. Edin Dzeko’s towering header seemed like a consolation. But then Mario Balotelli played a cute pass to Sergio Aguero, he side-stepped Queen’s Park Rangers defender Taye Taiwo and swept in one of the most iconic goals in English football history.
The stadium went from funereal mourning to explosive joy and disbelief. An 11-year-old Phil Foden, a young talent in the Blues academy at the time, invaded the pitch with his mum.
Toure and assistant manager Attilio Lombardo, who had joined the injured midfielder in the dressing room, unable to watch the dream die, raced out to join in the ecstasy. And Aguero’s name was written in gold leaf in the annals of sporting history.
Goalkeeping coach Massimo Battara reckons Mancini’s substitutions - Dzeko and Balotelli replacing Barry and Carlos Tevez - were the catalyst, as one scored the equaliser and the other created the winner. But he said that the tension and excitement of that day proved one thing: “After watching that match I know for sure that I won’t ever have a heart attack. I might die from some other misfortune but my heart will hold.
“I couldn’t believe that with ten minutes to go, sitting one row above Roberto with Ivan Carminati, the fitness coach, we commented ‘We really threw that one away!’
“It was unthinkable that we still could win, and regrets were deep. You are ahead for a whole season - and you deserve to be ahead too - then other clubs catch up with you , or rather, you allow them to catch up and overtake you.
“I was really distressed. Then we had a stroke of genius, that is the manager’s decision regarding substitutions - and a little bit of luck, because that is needed, too.”
Barry was denied the chance to put things right, and he sat on the subs’ bench, unable to watch. Leaning back in his seat, he gazed up into the clear blue skies over the Etihad and spotted a helicopter heading north.
"At 2-1 down I was thinking this is done," he said. "I looked up and saw a helicopter and wondered if it was the main trophy being flown north.
"Towards the end, I was sitting there watching our fans leaving, just thinking 'Here we go again'. In a way, it makes it more special but I would have preferred an easier win.
"The way it finished was unbelievable. This season has been so up and down that it was no surprise that the final finish went that way. But I don't think that will ever be beaten.
"I will remember it well because I had to sit and watch, and that is probably worse. You would rather be on the pitch. It's far more nervous to watch because you cannot affect it.”
Lombardo, Mancini’s assistant and old teammate from their playing days at Sampdoria, was another who could not bear to watch, so he didn’t: “It was a complete and utter disaster.
“When the score was 1-2, I went into the changing room to watch the last bit of the game with Yaya Toure, so that I would have someone to share emotions and disappointments with.
“You could read disappointment all over the faces of all those people who had flocked to watch the match - to lose a championship in a home game, after never ever losing in our own stadium! We were losing the Premier League on the last day after dominating throughout the whole season, for many months.. We were losing a title we thoroughly deserved, too. It was not easy to take.
“Let’s say it was a real drama. Then we went from sadness to infinite joy and happiness. After Aguero scored we leapt out of the changing rooms and went to the pitch, in order to celebrate with the staff and all those players who had made our dream come true.”
Mancini had not abandoned his post at pitch-side - according to QPR’s two former City players Joey Barton and Nedum Onuoha, he was pacing up and down the touchline dishing out choice insults to his players as they struggled to deal with the pressure of apparently blowing their big chance.
Said Barton, whose red card helped the City cause: “All I ever remember is the way Mancini spoke to the players and I thought if he had spoken to me like that, as soon as I was done lifting the trophy I would have planted you,
“It was outrageous – if you watch Sky back, read Mancini's lips. That's why he lost them the next year, that's why he got the sack.”
Onuoha backed that claim, saying: “Just before they scored their second goal, I’ll never forget Mancini was on the sideline and he’d completely lost the plot. He was cursing his players, he was insulting them, he was doing everything.
“The place was wild. The pressure in the stadium was as high as I’ve seen anywhere, in any game. It was chaotic. After they scored the third, I thought we were down.
“I realised we weren’t down when, five seconds after I had my hands on my head, I looked up at our fans and they were celebrating in the far stand.”
Mancini himself preferred to remember the reaction of the fans, as a wave of pure emotion tumbled down from the heights of the Etihad after the final whistle, 44 years of pent-up frustration, humiliation and proud defiance allowed to release in a cascade of tears nd cheers.
“I especially remember our supporters who were - and are still - brilliant,” said Mancini. “They feel the colours, they live for the team, they have great respect for the players and they have always stood by us.
“I remember their happiness at the end of the match, at winning the Premier League after 44 years. It was the best thing about the day.
"They really deserved that title, because they are great, and they really deserved some happiness after all that suffering.”
Among the throng who could not resist the urge to dash onto the pitch was an 11-year-old Phil Foden, given a seat in the family stand with his mum: “I was right behind the goal and saw it go in the net - I’ll never forget it. I remember the whistle went and everyone legged it onto the pitch! Me and my mum decided to go on as well.
“I remember seeing Aguero getting swarmed and security guards around him trying to get him to the tunnel. It was just full of people - you couldn’t move. It was massive. I knew how big it was. I could tell by the reaction around me how big it was.
“I don't think it will ever be done like that again. It was a special memory.”
The Aguero moment set off the ripples that have since turned into a tsunami of success for the Blues. If they had failed on that momentous day in May, who knows whether they would be where they are today, or if the crushing disappointment could have led to another decade of living in the shadows.
Now Foden is a star of the first team, creating his own history, and earning his own fan worship from his great hero Aguero. It was a goal that changed football history.
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