Porto cite Pepe’s red cards to expose double standards in Portugal | OneFootball

FC Porto took to social media on Wednesday morning to once again criticize the refereeing team led by Cláudio Pereira, following the first leg of the Portuguese Cup semi-finals, held at Estádio José Alvalade, where they were defeated by Sporting 1-0, a result decided by a penalty converted by Luis Suárez.

The club points to two specific incidents involving the Colombian international. The first occurred just before halftime, when Suárez made a controversial gesture to the cameras after the referee from the Leiria Football Association did not show a second yellow card, and thus a red card, to Alberto Costa following a tackle on Geny Catamo.

The second episode happened shortly before, when, outraged by the lack of a foul call on Pepê against Iván Fresneda, the former Almería forward violently attacked Jan Bednarek. In both situations, no disciplinary action was taken against the player.

The board, led by André Villas-Boas, used old footage to compare these incidents with two episodes involving Pepe, which they believe also deserved a direct red card: one in April 2024, when he made a glasses gesture towards Fábio Veríssimo in the FC Porto–Vitória SC match, and another in December 2023, when he assaulted Matheus Reis in the Sporting–FC Porto match.

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