Wild scenes in City win! Security steps in, tunnel rocks | OneFootball

There was plenty of tension in that one! Emotions boiled over more than once between Manchester City and Porto last night.

It all started in the first half with a foul by Marc Guéhi on Gabri Veiga. In an aerial challenge, the Man City star caught his opponent in the head with his arm, sending Veiga to the ground bleeding. The home side called for a sending-off, but the referee decided against showing either a yellow or a red card.

The players went into the break still fuming. According to English media reports, that led to a confrontation in the tunnel on the way to the dressing room. City goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli was allegedly shoved by Porto officials. Ruben Dias is also said to have pushed head coach Francesco Farioli afterward. “Security staff from both teams had to intervene to separate players and staff from both sides as they entered the tunnel,” Amazon Prime reporter Gabriel Clarke reported.

According to reports from inside the stadium, the tunnel could even be seen “shaking” during the clash between the teams, English outlet The Sun also reported.

When Enzo Maresca was asked about the tunnel scenes involving Dias after the match, the coach was clearly fed up: “How many times did you see me or my bench get up? Zero times in 95 minutes. How many times did you see their bench?...”

But that was not the last flashpoint of the evening. Shortly before full time, Erling Haaland and Pablo Rosario clashed on the pitch.

📸 Clive Brunskill - 2026 Getty Images

Haaland was wrestled to the ground by Rosario, and the two had to be separated by their teammates. Referee Szymon Marciniak showed both players a yellow card shortly afterward.

Adrian Durham, a reporter for English radio station talksport, sharply criticized Marciniak’s handling of the situation. “Really naive from the referee,” he said on air. “Rosario is basically just trying to get Haaland sent off, and that’s a disgrace. A really weak refereeing performance.”

Haaland himself did not comment on the scuffle after the final whistle, but he was realistic when speaking to the club’s own media: “We knew it was going to be a hard battle. Under that huge pressure, we had to deliver on the biggest stage, and we did that today.”

The striker had plenty of reason to celebrate anyway: along with being named Man of the Match and scoring both goals in the 2-0 win, he also matched a club legend. The Norwegian has now scored as many Champions League goals for Manchester City as Sergio Aguero (36). That means he needs just one more to move past the Argentine.

In the all-time Champions League scoring charts, Haaland also moved ahead of Thomas Müller and now sits seventh with 59 goals in total. Particularly remarkable is his average of exactly one goal per game. For comparison, Lionel Messi needed 80 appearances in the competition to reach 60 goals.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA - AFP or licensors