Everton missed out on a place at Wembley on Wednesay, as Manchester City booked their place in the League Cup Final.
Trailing 2-1 after the first leg at Goodison Park, City overturned the deficit, winning 3-1 at the Etihad.
Since the game the main talking point has been Kevin De Bruyne’s goal, which was allowed to stand despite Raheem Sterling appearing to take the ball out of play before pulling a cross back for the Belgian.
Shocking decision to award #MCFC a second goal against #EFC The ball is clearly out of play as Sterling crosses pic.twitter.com/f2RMXTWWNj
— Paul Smith (@Smudge1962) January 27, 2016
Roberto Martinez and Everton supporters have voiced their disapoitment at the decision, but it seems Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is unsympathetic.
When asked about the goal, the City boss defended the decision of the officials.
“First of all, I think the ball was just one centimetre over the line,” he explained. “It was very difficult for the linesman to see with the two posts, and the position of the referee cannot allow him to see if the ball is completely out or not.”
He also reminded those present that it wasn’t just Everton that felt aggrieved with some of the refereeing decisions in the recent meetings between the two teams.
“That was less of a mistake than the two penalties when [the referee] didn’t whistle against Everton in the Premier League and in the first leg at Goodison Park.
“Their first goal was also offside so Everton cannot complain about one refereeing decision that was a mistake. We have more complaints but we never talk, that’s the difference.
“We lost that game at Goodison Park and didn’t say anything about that.”
And Pellegrini wasn’t finished there.
The Chilean also suggested that Everton should look at the balance of the two games before claiming they were unfortunate not to progress.
“After that, if that goal was not allowed because the ball was out we had another 15 minutes, two shots on the post, we had a lot of options and absolutely dominated the game.
“Everton had just one shot in the second half so I don’t think we are in the final because of that refereeing decision. To link that with our win, we had more damage from the referee than Everton.
“Everyone has their opinion, I don’t talk about the opinions of other managers. We had 16 or 18 shots against three from Everton. We had another 15 minutes, if that was not the second goal when we had the third goal we stopped because we had the score we wanted. I’m sure if we weren’t already winning 2-1 we could score the second goal without any problem.”
