An otherwise calm affair came to a testy end on Wednesday night, as New York City FC head coach Ronny Deila pushed San Carlos' Pablo Arboine after Arboine made a reckless challenge on Gary Mackay-Steven down the sideline. Deila and Arboine were both shown yellow cards after the two teams came together.
The challenge came in the 81st minute with the home side up 1-0 and 6-3 on aggregate in the Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 matchup. The Cityzens cruised to an easy win and will face either Liga MX side Tigres or El Salvador's Alianza in the quarterfinals.
"I overreacted a little bit of course, but I reacted because of the tackle, because it was three, four seconds too late," said Deila after the match. "I just instinctively wanted to protect my player, I get scared that he gets injured. But I calmed down quite quick. It was like a little bit South American emotions there."
The yellow could come back to hurt Deila and NYCFC, as a second before the second leg of the semifinals would force him to miss a match.
Dylan Butler contributed to this report.
