Manuel Pellegrini taunts Everton boss Roberto Martinez after ref blunder helps Man City

MANUEL PELLEGRINI has taunted Everton by saying Manchester City would have won their Capital One Cup semi-final even without the blunder by referee Martin Atkinson.

 

Manuel Pellegrini has no sympathy for Everton after the controversial calls at Man City on Wednesday

 

And he pointed out that the Merseyside club should consider how lucky they were in both the first leg at Goodison Park and the Premier League game at the Etihad earlier this month when three refereeing decisions went the Toffees way.

Pellegrini accepted the ball had crossed the line before Raheem Sterling’s cut back set up Kevin De Bruyne to score City’s vital second goal on Wednesday.

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But he said it was far less of a mistake by the referee than the failure to disallow Everton’s first goal in the first leg for offside and the decisions to reject clear penalties later in that game and then in the League game between the two cup ties.

He said: “We had another 15 minutes [to get the win] if that goal had been disallowed.  When we scored the third goal we stopped [trying to score more] because we had the score we wanted.  But I’m sure if we were not already winning 2-1 we would have scored the second goal without any problem.”

Pellegrini says the criticism of Atkinson and his assistant from Everton is harsh.

“First of all, I think the ball was just one centimetre over the line,” he added. “It was very difficult for the linesman to see with the two posts, while the position of the referee cannot allow him to see if the ball is completely out or not.

“That was less of a mistake than the two penalties we should have had in the first leg and the League game.

“Their first goal in that first leg was also offside so Everton cannot complain about one refereeing 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.

 

“Our target was to win here 1-0 at home. If that [second] goal had not been allowed because the ball was out we had another 15 minutes to win the game, we had two shots that hit the post, we had a lot of chances and absolutely dominated the game. We had 16-18 shots to Everton's three.

“Everton had just one shot in the second half so I don’t think we are in the final because of that refereeing decision. We suffered far more damage from the referee than Everton. “

Inevitably, Pellegrini’s view is in stark contrast to the view of Everton boss Roberto Martinez but he said: “Everyone has their opinion, I don’t talk about the opinions of other managers.”