The shocking on-pitch melee between and continued in the tunnel after the match after Stefan Savic chased down to resume the confrontation.
’s side were far from their best as they ground out a goalless draw at the Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday night, having taken a 1-0 first-leg lead to the Spanish capital in the quarter-final of the Champions League.
In truth, Atletico showed little goal threat throughout the 180 minutes but things got extremely heated in the dying stages of the match after a rash challenge from Felipe started a massive brawl on the pitch late in the game.
The Brazilian’s teammate, Savic, felt Phil Foden had over-egged the challenge and tried to lift him up off the ground, sparking alarming scenes as every single player – and the benches – got involved.
At one point, Savic was seen lunging his head into Raheem Sterling and after Grealish called him a ‘c***’ the defender – who actually played for City earlier in his career – grabbed the England international’s hair and pulled it.
Eventually the situation calmed down, with Savic surprisingly only cautioned and Felipe shown a second yellow, but tempers continued to flare in the tunnel afterwards.
According to BT Sport, once the full-time whistle had blown Grealish was making his way back to the dressing room when Savic ran after him, with ‘wrestling’ ensuing before police calmed the situation down.
BT presenter Jake Humphrey explained: ‘Savic has gone up the tunnel, Savic has found Jack Grealish up the tunnel we believe, the police have now gone up the tunnel, there’s wrestling going on up there.’
Footage from inside the tunnel showed the two players arguing as they made their way up the stairs, with Savic yelling at Grealish, though they were separated by a railing and the City man was dragged away by Liam Delap.
Commentator Darren Fletcher, who was at the stadium, then explained what he had seen, saying: ‘As the players were heading up the tunnel, Jack Grealish was walking down the tunnel and Stefan Savic caught up with him.
‘And then all of the sudden there was a commotion right at the top of the tunnel and at that point a lot of other people came into that area and the two players – Savic and Grealish – disappeared from my view.
‘And then very, very quickly after that four police officers came charging to that area as well. There was quite a commotion down there. I couldn’t tell you exactly what’s happened inside the tunnel because I can’t see it.
‘But it was Stefan Savic involved again. Jack Grealish, the Man City player, was trying to leave the field, and it was another very, very unsavoury situation here symptomatic of what we’ve seen over the last 15 minutes.’
BT pundit Rio Ferdinand said of the altercation: ‘It’s weird how Jack’s involved. He’s been on the pitch maybe 10 minutes over the two legs. It must be the Gucci deal he got! They’re not happy with the Gucci deal, Savic thought he should have had it!
‘I don’t know what’s wrong. Something’s happened, there’s a jealousy there. Or the £100m price tag. It’s weird, either Jack’s said something that we haven’t seen or they just don’t like the look of him. It’s weird.’
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