Zabaleta at a loss over red card as City crash out 4-1 on aggregate to Barca
Meanwhile, in Paris, PSG complete the job against Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta claimed he didn’t know why he had been sent off as his side were dumped out of the Champions League by Barcelona in a 2-1 defeat at the Camp Nou which saw the Catalans progress 4-1 on aggregate.
The Argentine was dismissed for a second yellow card with the score at 1-0 with 12 minutes remaining after City had a strong penalty appeal waved away when Edin Dzeko appeared to have been felled by Gerard Pique.
City equalised on the night via Vincent Kompany, before Dani Alves made it 2-1 for Barca in the final couple of minutes, but the damage to the visitors’ chances of going through had already been done when Lionel Messi killed off the tie with the opening goal 23 minutes from time.
I don’t know why he sent me off. It was a clear penalty and the referee is two metres away from the incident.
“I don’t know why he sent me off. It was a clear penalty and the referee is two metres away from the incident,” Zabaleta said.
“There was a clear foul on Dzeko too in the build-up to Barca’s first goal, which he gave as a free kick to Barcelona.
“In the heat of the moment I ran towards him, but I didn’t show any lack of respect because I couldn’t say anything given I was on a yellow card.”
Defeat means City bow out of a second competition in four days, having suffered an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Championship side Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup on Sunday.
However, Zabaleta said they had shown enough in their performance at the Camp Nou to suggest they stand a real chance of winning the Premier League title for the second time in three years.