MARTEN de Roon was miffed and had support from head coach Steve Agnew after claiming he had been duped by Manchester City’s Leroy Sane as Middlesbrough were left frustrated by a controversial penalty incident at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro held the lead twice against Pep Guardiola’s Champions League contenders and there was frustration felt across Teesside when referee Kevin Friend awarded the visitors a penalty when they trailed to Alvaro Negredo’s first half opener.

With 21 minutes remaining Sergio Aguero stroked the spot-kick beyond goalkeeper Brad Guzan after Friend had deemed De Roon had tripped Sane in the area.

Middlesbrough’s players charged around to remonstrate with the decision, and de Roon was adamant the German forward had fallen into him rather than anything else as the ball ran away from goal and heading out of play.

Speaking immediately afterwards, Middlesbrough’s Dutch midfielder said: “I go to him, but I don’t step into him. I stayed in the same place. Of course, my leg goes a little bit wide because I want to block if he puts a cross in.

“But if you see where the ball is, he lost the ball, so he falls into me. I cannot go anywhere because I stand there. If I tackle him or anything, I’d say it’s a penalty. But I couldn’t go anywhere. The ref had a very good position to see it.

“It was clever. I think a referee has to know if someone is clever or someone tries to get something out of it. If the ball went past me, and he walks through me and the leg is there, it’s probably a clearer penalty.

“But the ball goes somewhere else and then falls into me. The ref could see where the ball went. It’s never a penalty for me. I have been fooled. Of course it feels unfair. I couldn’t do anything else. The ref had a clear view. I told him he would watch it back and he would see it’s not a penalty.”

At the time of the incident Middlesbrough were defending strongly and keeping Manchester City at bay. After that the home side rallied and reclaimed the lead when Calum Chambers scored with 13 minutes remaining, but Gabriel Jesus levelled again five minutes before the end.

Agnew, whose side can be officially relegated after the final whistle blows at Chelsea next Monday if Hull avoid defeat against Sunderland, was supportive of de Roon’s frustrations.

The head coach said: “From where I was, I didn’t think it was a penalty. I thought the player went down very, very easily.

“Looking at the referee’s position, was he in the correct position to give it? And from the video that I’ve seen, it looked like he didn’t have a clear view. I think when you give them, you’ve got to be 100 per cent certain.

“He is a top professional Marten and on top of that he’s a very intelligent boy. Marten knows that when he’s in the penalty area he is not one for making contact. I felt for Marten because he was top class like all the players were today.”

Manchester City boss Guardiola, whose side are a point ahead of Manchester United in the race for fourth, was not concerned.

He said: “I don’t complain about the penalties that have happened to us in the season. It could be a long list, so we are fair in our judgement.

“We will try until the last game and we have three at home now and they will decide if we deserve to be in the Champions League next season.”

Middlesbrough are six points behind fourth from bottom Hull after making the point and Agnew, whose side have collected four from their last two games, was encouraged by everyone’s performance – including the particularly impressive Negredo.

He said: “I think the performance just showed the determination and the fighting spirit of the squad. That was evident against one of the top teams in the country.

“I thought Alvaro has been very, very good all season. His goal today tells you everything – left foot, strong, powerful. He is a big game player and in a big game like today he produced a performance that was top class.”

Agnew is not prepared to give up on Middlesbrough’s chances of staying up yet. He added: “We are looking forward to Chelsea. Six points behind with three games left and a good goal difference. I think the players will take a lot of confidence going into Chelsea having played so well against Manchester City. We will continue to do that and I am very, very confident we can get the results that we need.”