Manchester City left-back Gaël Clichy has admitted that the decision to send him off for two bookings in his side's 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Barcelona was probably a fair one, but that the tie is far from over.
Clichy, 29, saw two yellow cards in the space of 15 minutes for two clumsy fouls on Ivan Rakitić and Dani Alves, leaving his side to play the final 20 minutes of the game with ten men.
"I believe if you play by the rules, it could be two bookings," he conceded after the game. [It happened] after two fouls in the game - small fouls which could be a yellow. If, after the first booking, I had made five or six fouls and the ref is telling me 'that's enough', that would have been fair.
"I think some of their players made worse fouls than me during the game without getting booked. I don't want to say anything and it was probably two light bookings but, by the rules, it is probably a booking."
His sending-off marked the end of an unlikely City comeback, as the home side looked to be growing into a game which had seemed hopelessly out of reach. However, Lionel Messi - who also had a goal disallowed for offside - saw a stoppage-time penalty saved by Joe Hart, keeping the English defending champions marginally in the tie.
“I think this save is a massive one,” the Frenchman continued. I’m not talking about the quality of Joe because he’s one of the leaders in the dressing room and on the pitch, but this save could be the turning point.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy and you cannot say the save is going to make us win the game but for sure, 2-1 is better than 3-1, we have to look forward. We're going to try and do our best at the Nou Camp.”
Clichy will be suspended for the return leg in Spain on March 18th, meaning Aleksandar Kolarov is likely to feature in his place. The Serbia international was not on the bench at the Etihad so Clichy's compatriot, right-back Bacary Sagna, was brought on to help shore up City's defence in the latter stages.