Manchester City 4 Tottenham 3 : Out of Europe

Watching this Manchester City game in the Etihad Stadium was an absolute joy right until the very end.

This game of football, played at breakneck speed by both sides was an exhilarating watch. Manchester City had to win by two clear goals and gave it everything they had. Ultimately it would prove to not quite be enough.

City opened the scoring with a by now trademark Raheem Sterling goal. Released after some clever play by Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem smashed one of those rising shots into the net and it was game on.

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But this would not be a knock out Champions Lesgue quarter final without some calamitous City defending. The surprise was not the careless play across the back by the Blues, but that Aymeric Laporte was involved. He has been so consistent all season we just don’t expect to see him give the ball away.

Laporte’s pass undid our cool defending and somehow Son got his shot through Ederson. The crowd had just about got used to this when the same two players combined again for a goal. Another wayward pass intercepted and Son curled a lovely shot in.

In those moments it is all about the character a team shows in responding. Within a minute of going behind and City were level again. Bernardo scored after a break and his shot ricocheted past Lloris.

It took another ten minutes before City surged ahead. Another De Bruyne piece of vision and Sterling was away again and scoring. That capped an amazing five goals scored by both teams in the first 21 minutes.

The second half started brightly for City who started to lay siege to the Spurs goal. Wave after wave of attack came, but it was not until the 59th minute when Sergio Aguero scored from close range that fans started to believe it was really possible.

The game changed almost against the run of play. Spurs had brought on the lumbering striker Loriente and seemed to settle for corners. They scored quickly from one and the crowd were dumbfounded.

Fans were sure the goal had in fact gone in off the strikers arm and there was even a lengthy VAR review but it changed nothing. The goal was given and City had to find another in the remaining 15 minutes.

What happened next was heart breaking in the stadium. City scored again and Raheem had his hat trick. It was right at the end of the game and Spurs would have no time to respond. The crowd went wild. The players were joining us celebrating and then it became apparent that there was a VAR review in progress.

The decision to give the goal was reversed and the Spurs fans celebrated. The last seconds ticked away and the game was gone.

VAR destroys the atmosphere at great games like this. There is no point in any fans celebrating anything. It is just for a TV audience and if that is where football is heading then there is no point us fans paying hard earned cash to attend.

What is difficult to focus on in the aftermath is that City played well and actually won the game. Yet this victory was hollow like a defeat. Somehow Pep Guardiola must raise these players for Saturday. I know that I am not ready to face Spurs again in 3 days!

City are out of the Champions League again but have given it a good attempt. We will be back next season. In the interim there remains the distraction of two more trophies.