Let’s blame the right person- Danny Murphy on Raheem Sterling controversy

Sterling later apologized to the referee and Shakhtar over the controversial penalty.

In what turned out to be a bizarre decision given by the match referee in the Champions League, Manchester City were awarded a penalty kick against Shakhtar Donetsk, after Raheem Sterling tripped himself inside the box.

From the video replays of the incident, it was clearly visible that no Shakhtar player made contact with the English forward. In fact, he attempted to chip the ball over Andriy Pyatov - the goalkeeper, and bizarrely kicked the ground and fell over. Nevertheless, Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai blew the whistle only to allow Gabriel Jesus to score from the spot and give City a two-goal lead in the first half.

Yet, BBC pundit Danny Murphy went on to back Sterling insisting that the 23-year-old was not at fault which is partially true as he didn’t even appeal for a penalty. This came as an aftermath to the incident as many accused the City star falling too easily and also that he should have owned up to the referee.

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“Let’s make sure we give the blame to the right person and that’s the referee. That was a really bad decision,” said Murphy while speaking on Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast, “When you watch it again, it’s laughable how he didn’t see it.”

Looks like Raheem Sterling took my "be more like Steven Gerrard" advice years ago a little too far here. pic.twitter.com/C1rnvus7fq

— Deluded Brendan (@DeludedBrendan) November 7, 2018

That controversial moment

However, Murphy - the former Liverpool, Tottenham and Fulham midfielder, expressed his views on whether in that situation, he would have been honest and told referee the truth, “I don’t know, maybe. As for them [City], it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”

Manchester City went on to score four more goals to complete a 6-0 thrashing of Shakhtar at the Etihad Stadium. David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez all scored a goal each while Gabriel Jesus scored a hat-trick to hand over City, an easy win which took them further closer to Round of 16 qualifications. With that result, The Cityzens now stand at the top of the Group F table with 12 points, 3 ahead of second-placed Lyon.