Iturralde blasts missed red for Sporting: “Serious foul play” | OneFootball

Sporting were reduced to ten men against Arouca after Zeno Debast was sent off, but, in the opinion of Iturralde González, the away side should also have finished the match a man down. The former Spanish international referee believes Espen van Ee deserved a red card for his challenge on Sergi Altimira.

In his assessment of the incident for Record, Iturralde was unequivocal. “It looks like a red card to me as well, like the previous one. It really has everything. When a player miscontrols the ball and wants to win it back quickly, 90% of those plays lead to a yellow card or a sending-off, and that is what happens here."

The former Spanish referee then detailed the reasons why he believes the challenge on the Sporting midfielder should have resulted in a sending-off. “The player miscontrols the ball, wants to win it back quickly, goes in studs up, throws himself to the ground and catches him above the ankle with his studs. It has everything to be a red card, it is serious foul play. You cannot go in like that, you can seriously injure a player".

Even so, Iturralde González had no doubts about the red card shown to Debast for the foul on Rukavina. “It is a very clear red card and the player knows it. He arrives very late, at great speed, with excessive force, goes in studs up and ends up catching the opponent. It has everything to be a red card, it really has everything: speed, excessive force, no contact with the ball, he arrives late. A textbook red card.”

Regarding the penalty conceded by Eduardo Quaresma on Barbero, the Spaniard also agreed with the final decision, although he criticised the fact that the referee needed VAR intervention. “It is an absolutely clear penalty in which the forward gets to the ball before the defender when the defender is already in the motion to clear it".

As for the incident involving Arruabarrena and Rodrigo Zalazar, Iturralde felt the refereeing team made the right decision by not awarding a penalty. “He gets the ball first and then it is no longer a penalty”, he explained, considering that the subsequent contact happened within the goalkeeper’s natural movement.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.