Rome (AFP)

A wounded goalkeeper, another expelled, and Manchester City had to play more than 10 minutes with side Kyle Walker in goals on Wednesday at Atalanta Bergamo to save a 1-1 draw that delays his qualification for the 8th final of the Champions League.

The case was played in the 82nd minute, when Claudio Bravo received a red card for an out-of-the-box outing to Ilicic. But Bravo had replaced right after the break the guardian Ederson, injured.

After a very long moment of confusion, Pep Guardiola finally pulled out Mahrez to get into the goal ... the right side Walker, who had just donned Bravo's shirt.

Walker struggled his first stop on the free kick hit by Malinovsky and then nothing. Atalanta did a terrible job of managing its numerical superiority while City did everything to prevent the Italians from shooting.

And De Bruyne and his family did very well because in a quarter of an hour, Walker had only to pick an easy center.

This draw changes little to positions in Group C. With 10 points, City remains in the lead and only needs one point to pass.

The Atalanta side has only one point, the one taken on Wednesday, but it allows him to believe in the qualification, which can only happen in case of victories in the last two days.

- foul penalty -

Before the events of the last quarter of an hour, the match had been divided into two separate parts.

The first was entirely English, with absolute domination by City players. For 45 minutes, we only saw the English and their questionable color Tequila Sunrise jersey.

From the 7th minute, they opened the mark by Sterling, ruthless on a heel of Gabriel Jesus.

But it was the Brazilian who tipped the match by missing totally, just before the break, a penalty awarded for a hand of Ilicic.

The match changed and the second period was much more balanced, even dominated by the Bergamo, who equalized by Pasalic, with a great header on a superb center of Gomez (49th).

After the 5-1 conceded in the first leg, Atalanta responded well and took the first point in its history in the Champions League. City on his side can already look further. Provided to solve his problems of guardian.

© 2019 AFP