Manchester United defender Harry Maguire described the decision to send him off against Bournemouth as “so soft…” Maguire was shown a red card with 12 minutes to play at the Vitality Stadium on Friday night.
Evanilson went to the ground after a push from Maguire. Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot, despite waving away a similar challenge on Amad in the Bournemouth box earlier in the game. Amad went down in the box, and VAR advised Attwell to stick with his on-field decision.
Eli Junior Kroupi made it 2-2 from the spot, and the points were shared, but the game was overshadowed by refereeing decisions, which Michael Carrick said he couldn’t get his head around.
Writing on social media, Maguire reacted by writing, “So soft, but that’s where football is at atm (currently), and I should know better. You would think both decisions would reach the same outcome. We will be back after the break. Safe travel home, Reds; your support has been unbelievable.”
Speaking after the game, Carrick was asked about Attwell’s refereeing and said, “My first [thought] is he definitely got one of them wrong, because he’s given one penalty for the same thing that he’s not given one for as a two-armed grab.
“The Matheus one, he gives; the second one on Amad, he doesn’t, which is, I think, almost identical, really – two hands on someone in the box, and they go over, and they’re in control of the ball.
I think it’s two penalties, but I’m curious to see which one he admits is wrong: the one we got or the one we didn’t. And it’s a giant moment.
“You don’t give it; they go down to the other end and score, and then it needs to be a bigger penalty to overturn just because they scored when actually it’s a penalty, and it should be a penalty if you’ve already given one.
“So it’s a bit baffling, really, to make sense of that. And because they scored, then the game flips a little bit and changes, and then we defended with the 10 men after all that very well, and the boys coming off the bench and finishing the game outstandingly.
“That was a big positive for us to take the point in the end because we’ve seen them win late here, so we take that, but the penalty one’s just astonishing, I have to say; one of them must be wrong.”
