Jamie Carragher has called Manchester City supporters ‘ridiculous’ over their banner which mocked Vinicius Jr before their side’s 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid within the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola’s side now face an enormous task with a purpose to reach the Champions League knockout phase after they threw away the lead twice against Madrid on the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
Erling Haaland put City in front before Kylian Mbappe pulled Madrid level. Haaland scored his second from the penalty spot to revive City’s lead but Madrid were level again through Brahim Diaz within the 86th minute. Jude Bellingham then netted Madrid’s winner from close range within the second minute of injury time.
City must now overturn their 3-2 defeat on aggregate on the Bernabeu next Wednesday with a purpose to reach the last-16 phase, where they might play either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen.
Because the two teams walked out to the pitch, City’s fans unveiled an enormous banner which showed Rodri kissing the Ballon d’Or trophy together with the message: ‘Stop crying your heart out.’
The banner was a transparent dig at Madrid’s response to Vinicius Jr losing out to Rodri within the Ballon d’Or race, with the Spanish club boycotting the award ceremony last October.
‘It’s absolutely ridiculous, why would you try this?’ Carragher told CBS Sports when asked concerning the banner unveiled by City’s supporters.
‘I do know having fun and a joke… but what do you gain from that? Even when it’s the fans, why annoy people? Why wind someone up? Do it at the tip of the sport in the event you’ve beat them and knocked them out.
‘I don’t know what you get out of it, what do you gain out of that?
‘It’s not funny tonight, is it? I just don’t prefer it. You realize what, if I used to be a Man City player… if I used to be coming out and say Steven Gerrard had won the Ballon d’Or and we were playing Real Madrid and he’d beaten one among their players, that’d annoy me if I used to be a Liverpool player. It’s like a jinx, I don’t like stuff like that.
‘Why wind up a few of the most effective players on the planet? Top-level footballers, I do know Real Madrid acted like babies not going there [to the Ballon d’Or ceremony] but you act like the right club.
‘Everyone laughed at Real Madrid not going to the Ballon d’Or when it was Vinicius Jr or Ancelotti not picking up the manager of the yr, the entire team, that was embarrassing for a club like Real Madrid simply because they haven’t won it in a single season, another person won the Ballon d’Or.
‘Man City don’t have to go to what they [Madrid] were doing – have the bit of sophistication.’
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