Atalanta 1-1 Manchester City: 3 talking points | Champions League 2019/20
Manchester City traveled to the San Siro looking to seal a spot in the Champions League round of 16. However, they failed rather spectacularly in their attempts, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Atalanta.
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for Pep Guardiola's side, capping off a wonderful move with a sweet strike into the bottom corner.
Gabriel Jesus missed a golden opportunity to get on the scoresheet himself as he sent a penalty well wide of the target on the stroke of halftime.
Atalanta then emerged from the break with a spring in their step and took the attack to City. Soon enough, they found themselves level thanks to Mario Pasalic's bullet header.
Despite finding themselves a man to the good following Claudio Bravo's sending off, Atalanta could not press home their advantage, with both the teams sharing the spoils at the final whistle.
Here we take a look at three of the biggest talking points from an entertaining encounter at the San Siro:
#1 VAR gets it right, twice in 2 minutes!
VAR has copped plenty of criticism of late, especially for the way it's been implemented in the Premier League. However, tonight's contest showed just how useful the technology can be when used in the right manner.
With five minutes to go until half-time, referee Aliaksei Kulbakov awarded Manchester City a penalty after Raheem Sterling was brought down by Rafael Toloi. However, replays suggested that the contact was initiated just outside the box which meant the decision was overturned upon review.
From the subsequent free-kick, City were denied a penalty for a handball shout against Josip Ilicic. However, after taking a closer look at the incident on the pitch-side monitor, the referee was forced to reverse his decision once again and point to the spot.
Although there remain plenty of concerns regarding the technology and its shortcomings, it is clear that VAR, if used properly, can be quite a handy tool.
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