Nothing brings out tempers like matches with everything on the line. And with everything to play for in group B and seeding to play for in group D, things got pretty chippy.
We got things started with Manchester City as Manchester City went down to ten in their loss to RB Leipzig. Kyle Walker was handed a straight red card for his kick out at Andre Silva. This may be a situation where Walker was frustrated due to City being behind in the match but thanks to the sending off, he’ll miss the first match of the knockout stages which isn’t what Pep Guardiola will want to hear as Walker and Joao Cancelo have been the first choice fullbacks on the season.
In a match where the winner would win Group D between Real Madrid and Inter Milan, Nicolo Barella saw red as Inter were chasing an equalizer. After getting tackled, Barella punched Eder Militao’s calf almost starting a fight between the two teams. He will also miss Inter’s first match of the knockout stage which isn’t optimal. Inter would go on to lose the match 2-0 leading to Real Madrid winning the group.
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Atletico Madrid made it through to the knockout stages but it wasn’t easy as there were three red cards in their match with Porto. After Antoine Griezmann’s opener in the 56th minute pushed Porto’s backs against the wall, the tension in the game went up a few notches. Yannick Carrasco was sent off for carrying the ball away after Porto won a throw-in. Once Otavio tried to get the ball back, Carrasco responded by pushing him in the face, sending tempers flying.
This also saw Otavio receive a yellow along with Angel Correa seeing yellow for dissent. Pepe also got a yellow for attempting to take on the entire Atletico team and likely saying some unsavory comments in the process. After coming on as a substitute, Wendell was dismissed as well after a flop from Cunha. As Wendell held the ball, Cunha tried to snatch it away and also took the opportunity to throw himself to the ground while making contact. In a match that was already extremely on edge, this incident is what pushed everybody over the cliff and sent the teams into a massive shoving match on the sideline that got Agustin Marchesin, Porto’s backup keeper, sent off before Atletico scored two more goals to put the match out of sight.
Not to be left out, Besiktas saw Welinton dismissed before half for taking down Mahmoud Dahoud in a goalscoring position. Not only did he concede the penalty that Marco Reus scored but he also saw his team lose 5-0 to complete a clean sweep of losses in Champions League group stage play. Not a great day at the office.
