Manchester City and Porto players clashed in the tunnel at half-time during the Champions League tie in Portugal on Tuesday night
Polish referee Szymon Marciniak tries to separate Manchester City's forward Erling Haaland and FC Porto's midfielder Pablo Rosario during the UEFA Champions League match
Manchester City and Porto's Champions League tie saw several flashpoints
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Manchester City face a nervous wait to see if they will be punished by UEFA after a half-time tunnel fracas in their opening Champions League game of the season against Porto.
Enzo Maresca's side ran out 2-0 winners in a fiery contest which saw several flashpoints as temperatures ran high in the Dragao Stadium. Erling Haaland scored early in the second period and again in injury time to give the Blues a winning start in Europe.
But the night could be tainted by a punishment from UEFA after both sides clashed in the tunnel at half-time. Porto's players and staff were angry that a Marc Guehi challenge on Gabriel Veiga went unpunished when the former Crystal Palace defender caught the Porto man with his elbow when winning a header, while the home side felt some of the first half decisions by referee Szymon Marciniak had gone against them.
It prompted pushing and shoving as the teams entered the tunnel at half-time with City captain Ruben Dias involved and security forced to step in. Both sides must now wait to see if the fracas is part of the official report from the referee and the UEFA delegate. City and Porto could face fines while players could face suspensions if it is deemed that offences have been committed, while the incident could equally be left out of any report altogether.
Amazon Prime reporter Gabriel Clarke was in close proximity and said: "That anger triggered by the Veiga-Guehi incident, the pushing and the shoving, the bad-tempered behaviour, continued down the tunnel as the players came off for half-time. Security for both teams were involved separating the backroom staff and players from both sides as they entered the mouth of the tunnel.
"Gabi Veiga himself had to be pulled away, to an extent, by one of the Porto staff. He was, obviously, among the most animated. A lot of shoving, a lot of venting. We’ll see if it’s in the referee’s report, and we’ll see if it continues in terms of that sort of behaviour by both sides into the second half, hopefully not.”
Maresca made the point after the game of saying how he and his staff remained calm during the contest, in what the City boss felt was a contrast to the behaviour from the home bench.
"You can ask what you want but how many times you see me or my bench or the guys that work with me stand up on the bench? Zero, for 95 minutes," he said. "How many times you see their bench? So..."
Porto head coach Francesco Farioli felt both Guehi and Josko Gvardiol were fortunate not to be sent off, telling Prime Video: "Yeah, I think so from the matches that I saw, I believe a card could have been given. Of course, in that moment, it is a red.
"And as well, there was a moment with Gvardiol when he stopped an action after already being with a yellow card, it could have been a second one. At this level, at this stage, the opportunity to play the second half against ten men, or even nine at some point, it could have changed things.
"But again, a lot of respect for the team that we play against. For us, we need to switch off really fast. A great performance tonight but now, in the weekend, we are going to have a very tough match in Lisbon, and you have to be ready for that."