Raheem Sterling has publicly apologised to Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai following the farcical scenes that earned Manchester City a first-half penalty in their 6-0 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk.
With City having gone 1-0 up through David Silva after just 13 minutes and were awarded a penalty just 11 minutes later when Raheem Sterling went down in the box.
However, replays clearly showed that the Shakhtar defender was nowhere near the Man City attacker, who inexplicably kicked the ground before dramatically falling to the ground.
Sterling been watching Vidal Penalty compilations 😂😂 https://t.co/grOjORBC9q
— 🇵🇸 🇨🇩 🇸🇩 (@QuitePeter) November 7, 2018
Gabriel Jesus stepped up to convert the penalty in what was the first goal of his hat-trick, as City went on to win 6-0 over the Ukrainian side, and speaking after the game, Sterling admitted that he didn’t feel any contact and apologised to the referee:
“I went to chip the ball and don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel contact. I scuffed the ball. Apologies to the ref,” Sterling told BT Sport.
The result leaves Man City at the top of Group F on nine points, but still have to play Hoffenheim and Lyon, with the French side already getting the better of the Premier League champions this season.