Jamie Carragher has hit out at Manchester City supporters for antagonising Real Madrid ahead of next week's crunch Champions League play-off second leg. City were beaten 3-2 at the Etihad on Tuesday night as Jude Bellingham struck a late winner for Los Blancos but as the two sides walked out onto the field prior to kick-off, the home fans unveiled a banner of Rodri kissing the Ballon d'Or in a bid to rattle Real's cage.
The display also read 'Stop crying your heart out' - a clear message to both Vinicius Jr and Real Madrid, who snubbed October's Paris ceremony after learning the Brazilian winger had lost out on the top prize. Carragher wrote on X: "Let’s wind Real Madrid up, even though we’ve still got to go to the Bernabeu next week," accompanied with a mind-blown emoji. He also said during CBS Sports' coverage of the five-goal thriller: “It’s absolutely ridiculous, why would you do that? I know having a laugh and a joke… but what do you gain from that? Even if it’s the fans, why annoy people? Why wind someone up? Do it at the end of the game if you’ve beat them and knocked them out.
“I don’t know what you get out of it, what do you gain out of that? It’s not funny tonight, is it? I just don’t like it. You know what, if I was a Man City player… if I was coming out and say Steven Gerrard had won the Ballon d’Or and we were playing Real Madrid and he’d beaten one of their players, that’d annoy me if I was a Liverpool player. It’s like a jinx, I don’t like stuff like that.".
Real Madrid's players issued the perfect response, however, as they will now take a priceless lead back to the Santiago Bernabeu ahead of next Wednesday's decider. Speaking to TNT Sports Brasil after the game, Vinicius Jr admitted the banner spurred him on, stating: "I see it, I see the banner, but whenever the opposing fans do things, they give me more strength to play a great game and here I did it.
"They know our history, everything we do in this competition. It's the fifth time we've come, it's always very cold, but this time we won and we have to continue along this line.". Erling Haaland had twice put City ahead but second-half goals from Kylian Mbappe, Brahim Diaz plus Bellingham's stoppage-time winner made sure of victory for the holders. Join our new WhatsApp community! Click this link to receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
