Before Tuesday night's dramatic 3-2 Champions League play-off first-leg defeat, City fans revealed a tifo depicting Rodri collecting the Ballon d'Or award, with a message reading: “Stop crying your heart out.” This alludes to the Ballon d'Or ceremony in which Madrid boycotted after it was revealed their winger Vinicius Junior would not win the award.
Carragher spoke on CBS Sports about the banner which came back to bite City after Vinicius lobbed the ball over goalkeeper Ederson to Jude Bellingham who won the game for the La Liga side.
“It's absolutely ridiculous. Why would you do that? What do you gain from that? Why annoy people?
“Do it at the end of the game if you've beaten them and knocked them out. Why are you getting involved in that? I don't know what you get out of it.
He then continued: 'Let's say Steven Gerrard had won the Ballon d'Or and we were playing Real Madrid and he'd beaten one of their players (to the award). That'd annoy me. It's like a jinx. Why wind up some of the best players in the world?”
Carragher’s words were backed up when Vinicius himself admitted that the banner motivated him even more ahead of kickoff.
“I saw the banner from Man City fans - and it motivated me even more,” Vinicius said. “Whenever rival fans do things, it gives me more strength to play a great game.”