Police inside Atletico Madrid's stadium have been forced to intervene in a tunnel bust-up as ugly scenes marred Manchester City's progression into the Champions League semi finals.
City earned their place in the last four after a bruising encounter at the Wanda Metropolitano ended 0-0, with the Premier League champions progressing 1-0 on aggregate. The game ended in remarkable fashion with Atleti reduced to ten men and a huge on-pitch brawl between both sides.
Pep Guardiola's side kept their heads however and navigated their way through more than 10 minutes of added-on time to earn their spot against Real Madrid in the semis later this month. But moments after the full-time whistle Atletico Madrid defender Stefan Savic is alleged to have chased Jack Grealish as he attempted to walk up the tunnel, with multiple police officers subsequently forced to step in.
“As the players were leaving the tunnel, Jack Grealish was walking down the tunnel then Stefan Savic caught up with him and all of a sudden there was a commotion right at the mouth of the tunnel," BT Sport commentator Darren Fletcher explained.
"At that point a lot of people came running into that area and the two players, Savic and Grealish, disappeared from my view Very, very quickly after that four police officers came charging to that area as well and there was quite a commotion down there.
“I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened inside the tunnel because I can’t see it, but it was Stefan Savic involved again, Jack Grealish the Man City player that was trying to leave the field, but another unsavoury situation here and very symptomatic of what we saw the last 15 minutes.”
Savic appeared to take issue with Grealish in the first leg at the Etihad, flicking his hair and the central defender again targeted City's record signing, pulling his hair in the melee following his foul on Foden. Savic somehow escaped a red card for his multiple indiscretions and BT Sport pundits had their own theories as to why he singled out Grealish.
"It must’ve been the Gucci deal he got!" Rio Ferdinand joked. "He mustn’t be happy he got the Gucci deal! The hair length? I don’t know what’s wrong. Jealousy? Hundred million price tag?
"Either Jack said something we haven’t seen or he just doesn’t like the look of him. If I was Jack Grealish I’d be talking about being on the winning team." Joleon Lescott added: "Savic had an issue with Jack in the first leg, you can see it’s a personal issue. There was something there. The rest of Atletico players are congratulating fans, whilst he’s in the tunnel. It’s a selfish act."
Images obtained by RMC Sport showed the two teams in fierce arguments as they made their way back into the dressing rooms, with several members of security stepping in to stop things escalating further.
