Raheem Sterling should have thrown himself to the ground to win a penalty in Manchester City’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, according to teammate Yaya Toure.
The England forward was pushed by Spurs defender Kyle Walker as he raced in on goal in the second half of Saturday’s clash — but tried to stay on his feet and fluffed his shot straight at Hugo Lloris.
Referee Andre Marriner refused to point to the spot and City’s frustration was compounded just over a minute later when Son Heung-Min hit Tottenham’s equaliser.
Walker admitted to BT Sport after the game that he was fortunate not to give away a penalty and Toure said Sterling should have gone down when he felt the push.
“If you have a bit of experience like me, you’d maybe dive and that’s maybe what you have to do,” Toure told reporters.
“He’s too honest, he wants to be proper in these sort of games. If the lad’s like that, you can’t tell him he’s wrong, if that’s what he tries to do. When you see it, he was so close and after that Walker pushes him in the back.
“When you see the two penalties, Raz is always in front and the guy’s pulled him, kicked him in the back — it’s unfair sometimes.
“I’ll go home and watch the highlights and I’ll probably break the glass and be angry because we’ve lost two points like that.
“If the ref looks again, he’ll feel it’s unfair. It’s difficult to take because it’s a couple of points going away. We played against a good team, Tottenham are strong, they fight in every area but we deserved the three points.”
The draws keeps City in fifth place in the Premier League table, still three points adrift of Spurs. Toure admitted that manager Pep Guardiola and the players were hugely frustrated by the result, but said their performance was still encouraging in their battle to secure a top-four Champions League place.
“People look at the details, the possession we had but scoring goals is most important,” Toure added. “That’s something difficult to take, we feel a little bit robbed because we dominated the game. It was a fantastic game for us.
“[Tottenham] are in form this year, they are one of the top teams this year. The manager and the players were frustrated because we feel like we’ve been robbed.”
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