Leicester’s Schmeichel slams offside goal and ‘freak incident’

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel insisted his side could be proud of themselves after a “freak incident” and an “offside goal” saw Manchester City beat the Foxes 2-1.

City took the lead on 29 minutes when David Silva scuffed the ball home but there was some controversy with Raheem Sterling seemingly in an offside position.

Silva converted Leroy Sane’s cross simply enough but England winger Sterling stuck out a leg as the ball made its way towards the bottom corner.

“The first goal is offside. Anybody who has played football, especially in goal, knows he’s [Sterling] offside,” Schmeichel told Sky Sports. “He’s blocking my view when the ball comes across him, he’s blocking Christian Fuchs’ view in making an attempt for the ball, so he’s offside.

“It’s one of these debates as players we’d love to get involved in but we’re not allowed to. That’s what makes it very frustrating that they [officials] aren’t willing to listen.

“No-one asks for the players’ opinions. They come in and they tell us the rules and they won’t listen to the fact it’s very different for a goalkeeper.”

Pep Guardiola’s side were 2-0 up after 36 minutes after Gabriel Jesus’ penalty before Shinji Okazaki pulled a goal back for Leicester just before the break.

The Foxes hunted down an equaliser in the second half and thought they had it on 77 minutes when Riyad Mahrez converted a spot kick of his own after being felled by Gael Clichy. The Algerian, though, slipped on his run up and Schmeichel had few complaints, saying: “The incident with Riyad is obviously a freak incident.

“It’s a strange feeling today. We can be proud of our attitude. We lost our composure a bit after the first goal but after that we fought. We defended very well, we gave everything.”

Raheem Sterling admitted City got lucky in their win which boosts their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

“It’s a massive win. We got the luck we needed throughout the season,” he told Sky Sports. “There have been times throughout the season where we deserved a bit more, but today we got that luck and the three points.

“David shot, as an attacker you always try to be in and about. I realised if I touched it I would be offside so I left it. I wasn’t worried because I know I didn’t touch it. I wasn’t too close to it. It was definitely David’s goal.”

Meanwhile, City midfielder Yaya Toure celebrated his 34th birthday with a win but, with his contract up in the summer, he refused to reveal too much about his future.

He said: “I think my future is Tuesday. We have another game [against West Brom]. Let’s see what can happen. In sport you never know what can happen in the future.

“I think age is just a number. I always enjoy football. I hate my birthdays, I don’t like it. Today the fans were quite fantastic and I’m very happy.”