Sterling hits out at VAR after penalty decision during Man City vs Chelsea

Raheem Sterling claims he "knew it was a penalty" despite VAR siding against him in the closing stages of Manchester City's clash with Chelsea.

Sterling appeared to be bundled over by Kurt Zouma with the teams level at 1-1 approaching additional time at the Etihad.

It was a similar incident to the first-half tussle between Billy Gilmour and Gabriel Jesus which resulted in a penalty being awarded - that Sergio Aguero subsequently squandered with a doomed Panenka.

The decision not to award Sterling a spot kick proved vital in the result, as minutes later Chelsea took the lead through a last-gasp Marcos Alonso strike.

The England international was left aghast by the decision and told Sky Sports : "For me, I couldn't get a shot off because he's put his knee in the back of my hamstring.

"I don't know how it's not a penalty, I don't know how it's not been reviewed properly.

"The ref said it'd been reviewed, but at the end of the day, personally, I knew it was a penalty.

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"I thought the VAR was here to help, but it wasn't meant to be.

"He said to me it's been checked and it's been cleared, it's not a penalty, but for me it's a sure penalty."

There was one positive for Sterling, however, as he scored his first goal since February to hand City the lead at the end of the first half.

"It was good to get on the scoresheet and I thought today was going to be the day we'd get over the line," he said.

"As I said, we didn't finish our chances and against a team like Chelsea, with the players they have, they'll punish you."

Sterling added: "It's a difficult one to take, especially as we had chances to finish the game off and we didn't finish it off. We got punished, as simple as that."