Marc Guehi walked off at half-time in Porto with his shirt clean and his record untarnished. Social media thought he should have been walking off on his own, down the tunnel, with a red card above his head.
The Manchester City defender sparked fury in Portugal after a first-half clash with Porto midfielder Gabri Veiga that left the home crowd raging and the player bleeding.
Elbow flashpoint ignites a hostile night
The incident came as the two challenged for a high ball during the Champions League league phase tie. Guehi rose to win the header; his elbow rose with him and smashed into Veiga.
The impact was brutal. Veiga hit the turf, blood pouring, while Guehi simply turned and got back into position. No whistle. No card. Nothing.
Referee Szymon Marciniak allowed play to continue, and even when Veiga received lengthy treatment on the pitch, the Polish official kept his cards in his pocket. Veiga eventually got to his feet and, after a couple of minutes of attention, was able to carry on.
The replay told its own story. So did the reaction.
“Marc Guehi absolutely clattered Gabri Veiga,” wrote one fan online. Another was more direct: “Guehi has gotten away with murder there.” The phrase kept coming back: “Guehi getting away with murder. Never change Uefa.” One more summed up the general mood: “Guehi is lucky there. That is a dangerous challenge. How is Guehi not getting a red card for this rash tackle?”
The sense of injustice did not stay on the screens. It spilled onto the pitch, then into the tunnel.
Tunnel trouble as tempers boil over
When the half-time whistle went, the match did not pause. It simply changed venue.
As players and staff from both sides headed towards the tunnel, tempers snapped. Manchester City and Porto personnel clashed in a heated confrontation, pushing and shouting as they funneled into the narrow space.
Security teams from both clubs had to step in to separate the groups as the argument threatened to escalate into something far more serious. Those inside the ground reported the tunnel “shaking” during the ruckus, a vivid image of just how explosive the atmosphere had become.
Amazon Prime reporter Gabriel Clarke, watching from close quarters, linked the chaos directly back to the Guehi–Veiga collision.
“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,” he reported. “Security for both teams were involved in separating the backroom staff and players from both sides as they entered the mouth of the tunnel.”
One challenge, one non-decision, and the entire night was suddenly on edge.
Nevin backs Guehi but concedes ‘reckless’ call
Not everyone saw a clear red.
Former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin stepped in to defend Guehi’s actions, arguing that the defender’s movement was part of the natural mechanics of going up for a header.
“Where do you put your arm?” he asked on the BBC. “If you’re going for the header and someone is lower you can’t make your arm disappear.”
Nevin did, though, accept that the tackle could be judged harshly.
“They could only make one argument that Marc Guehi is reckless,” he added, before praising the man in the middle: “This referee has got everything spot on so far.”
That verdict will do nothing to calm those Porto supporters replaying the image of their bloodied midfielder and wondering how a night that already felt hostile might look in the return fixture.
