“In football anything is possible,” was Pep Guardiola’s rallying cry and while Manchester City failed to pull off a Lazarus act for the ages, this was a definite one-off wonder of a contest that thrilled all witnesses.
Particularly, the first 45 minutes of mayhem headlined by Vinícius Júnior apparently being ruled offside by the referee, Clément Turpin, then onside, which meant Bernardo Silva was then penalised for handball, sent off, and the Brazilian then scored from the spot. Further entertainment also derived from a Guardiola yellow card, Erling Haaland’s equaliser, and a slew of goalmouth incident that mostly continued after the break – including late finishes from Rayan Aït-Nouri and Fede Valverde that were ruled offside, and one from Vinícius that counted.
