Manchester United fury at ‘astonishing’ penalty decisions
Manchester United They were left furious over the “surprising” and “baffling” referee decisions as two penalties were awarded in the thrilling 2-2 draw and one was not a penalty. Bournemouth.
Harry Maguire’s special day following his England recall was spoiled by his sending off at the Vitality Stadium, but it was the referees’ performance that left United furious.
Maguire, who will return to the England squad for the friendly matches against Uruguay and Japan for the first time in nearly two years, received a red card for pulling back Evanilson in the penalty area as Manchester United was ahead 2-1 with 10 minutes left in the match.
Junior Kroupi then scored the penalty but his decision not to award Manchester United an earlier spot-kick angered interim manager Michael Carrick – especially after his side were awarded a penalty for what he saw as a similar challenge earlier in the game.
The penalty, which was not awarded to the visiting team, came when Amad Diallo was pulled into the penalty area by Adrien Truffert, and Manchester United took the lead 1-0 after Bruno Fernandes’ penalty.
Describing the decisions taken as “surprising”, Carrick said: “The first [thought] He definitely got one of them wrong, because he was given a penalty for the same thing that wasn’t given as a two-armed snatch.
“So Matheus gives one to Cunha, he doesn’t give the second one to Amad, I think it’s almost the same, they actually hit someone in the box with both hands and they go there and take control of the ball.
“It’s such a big moment and I don’t understand how you can give one and not the other; it’s crazy. It’s obvious.”
“If he believed it was the starting penalty then obviously there should have been a second one too. I don’t understand how you couldn’t give it. Then the goal and after that it was chaos. Amazing.”
Meanwhile, Manchester United captain Fernandes thought that if Bournemouth were given a penalty for Maguire’s foul, they should also be given a penalty for the Diallo incident.
“I think we could have gone 2-0 up, then we conceded a goal without taking a penalty, and then we conceded a penalty, which was more or less the same situation as Amad,” he said.
“One is awarded as a penalty and the other is not. I know it is difficult for the referee to award two penalties to the same team in the same match, but I do not understand why VAR did not intervene in this situation.”
