Champions League moments – 67 seconds

67 seconds. How long did it feel to you? Longer than that, for sure. That feeling of footballing despair we all experienced when Raheem Sterling scored in injury time for Manchester City in the quarter-final, second leg to seemingly put us out of the Champions League.

The clock read 92.22 when Sterling struck. Our players collapsed, inconsolable. We were out. The journey was over. Hugo Lloris stared into space. Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando held their heads in their hands. Ben Davies was left on his haunches. Dele collapsed to the floor.

They were completely unaware of the drama unfolding. Seconds later, the first replays of the goal showed Sergio Aguero just offside. And wait, Christian Eriksen’s attempted pass back had clipped off Bernardo Silva. The decision went to VAR. Aguero was offside! It had to be ruled out!

And it was. With the clock now reading 93.27, referee Cuneyt Cakir made a square shape with his fingers, raised his arm, pointed to the floor and on 93.29, blew his whistle. The goal was disallowed. 90 seconds to go. We were into the semi-finals.

Mauricio Pochettino and the players have spoken about how those 67 seconds felt to them.

It’s safe to say we all felt their pain - and joy...

Mauricio Pochettino

"It’s like when you feel empty, you feel in a hole and there is no light. During this minute I had no energy, no thoughts. It was like disappearing off the world. It’s like you then wake up after one minute and you say ‘I am alive’, because you are dead at that moment. I don’t know what it means to die, but that’s the comparison I can feel. I shared with the players it was like the end of the world. At that moment, everything changed. It’s like a cable has disconnected you and the energy is gone."

Hugo Lloris

"I was so down when Sterling scored. We made so much effort to stay in the game in that crazy night. We went through all the emotions and to end the game in that way would have been a catastrophe for our emotional side. Then, luckily, we saw the referee disallow the goal in a fair decision. I still remember that Bernardo Silva wasn’t celebrating the goal. He was on the left. I remember I stayed on the floor for a few seconds. It was like the end of the world. Then when I got up, I saw the face of the referee, it was disallowed and then the feeling was the other way, amazing. It was like a goal, a lift of emotions."

Ben Davies

"I remember screaming at Christian to pass the ball back but the pass took a deflection, flew past me and I thought ‘oh no, here we go’. I was sprinting back and I had the feeling that Aguero was going to cut it back to Sterling, I tried to get there but I knew if I tried to tackle, the chances were it was going to end up a penalty, if I slid in to try and cut it out it might end up in our net and then Sterling took it past Toby and stuck it away. At that moment, the whole world came down on us. The VAR is a mad, mad moment. I didn’t know what it was for at the time. I had no idea. When I saw VAR on the big screen, I didn’t know why. I just thought ‘that’s a goal’. Then it wasn’t! We had to get through the last couple of minutes. I remember clearing the ball long, just booted it as far as I could. These games are just crazy, crazy."

Kieran Trippier

"That moment was horrible, just horrible. We ran our legs off over two legs. When Raheem Sterling scored that goal we all sunk to the ground. It’s been a long season and we felt we deserved something. Then it was disallowed for VAR. It was only a minute but felt like 90 minutes. Their fans, the staff were all celebrating, as you would, scoring in the last second. It drained all of us, especially after we’d got ourselves back into the game. The emotions were unbelievable, but then it all changed around again."

Fernando Llorente

"That goal was the worst moment in the game. We worked a lot and when they scored, I wanted to disappear from the world. It was the worst moment in my career, if this goal is valid. Everyone thought that the goal was valid but we looked to the screen and saw VAR, I couldn’t believe it. It was surprise, happiness and then we had to fight until the end. The last few minutes was like 20 minutes, very long. We really want to hear the final whistle, but we got there."