The barn-burner of a match between Manchester City and Liverpool certainly warranted a pitch invader. Perhaps loads of them. And it did get one really special pitch invader at the end: a certain Benjamin Mendy, who happens to play left back for Man City.
Mendy is currently out injured for Man City, and so as the final whistle blew on an insane 2-1 victory for his team, Mendy, in street clothes, took to the field from the bench—only to be nearly accosted by security (or “stewards” for you footie linguists out there).
Videos by VICE
You can hardly blame the stewards for mistaking Mendy for a pitch invader, as they saw a guy wearing white pants and a bright orange jacket barreling toward the center of the field—pretty high contrast to Man City’s powder blue. The stewards quickly realized their mistake once Mendy’s teammates did not recoil in horror at his presence and kept on trotting across the field as if they had simply decided to go out for a quick jog all along.
Eventually the clip made its way back to Mendy and he had a good laugh about it on his social media accounts, likening himself to Antonio Brown (also in street clothes for his recent big game) evading defenses.
But Man City’s victory was certainly worth celebrating. The stakes were massive from the outset, with Liverpool topping the Premier League table and Man City with a chance to close the gap to a 4-point striking distance. And the game was appropriately bonkers.
Take, for example, this absurd near-goal by Liverpool, which would have put Liverpool up 1-0:
I mean, just look at this thing! John Stones actually nutmegs Mohamed Salah on the goal line! Pure, unadulterated insanity for the closest thing to a goal you can get without actually scoring.
Not to mention this gorgeous strike from Man City’s Leroy Sané, made by mere inches:
So as close as those moments were—and as close as those stewards were to taking out Mendy—you can hardly blame Mendy for fan-boying out on the pitch. Shit was pure madness.
