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Agree on the law, but which footballing action - could you elaborate? To me it looked like the wall had broken, the ball was travelling through the gap, and his hand instinctively moved down towards the ball to stop it. The three in the wall all jump and Grealish is the only one of them with...

I thought that was handball - hand moves towards the ball and it’s away from his body. Hard to argue C&O if everyone’s split on it though.

Just a bad decision on-field. Can understand VAR not going with C&O, but I’d lean towards overturning. Bournemouth not had much luck this second half.

Fantastic decision for the Saka non-pen. Looked like it had to be a pen live (why would he go down?) but the replay clearly showed Saka initiated the contact. And also fine with the Law 18 approach to the Gabriel handball.

Yeah I think there are multiple valid interpretations on the second Gordon one - I’d lean towards PK but also pretty sympathetic to this view given that he has no ability to play the ball.

Forest have a reason to be aggrieved - they never get controlled possession back after the drop ball. It’s a clear error in law, and those are rare. Still, they need to respect the referee and all the stuff with Clattenburg is embarrassing.

Good footballing IQ - but a technical question, is VAR empowered to get involved here if they wanted to? I would say this is taking the FK from the wrong place, but not sure if VAR can intervene on that law, or whether the concept of “clear and obvious” exists here...

Clear and obvious error for something that’s clearly and obviously not a pen in the first place. Know the guidance is different in Europe but it’s just appalling from everyone who’s let it get to the point where that is a pen.

You do have the issue that teams at the end of the game will make frivolous challenges just because they might as well try (as you see in cricket), or to slow the game down. Still think it could be worth exploring, but 3 each definitely too many.

I’d like to see it tried - also saves referees from some of the criticism when teams are out of challenges because they shouldn’t have wasted them in the first place

It’s extremely soft, and don’t think AT would have given it if he’d seen the replay or the initial pull by Haaland. That said - don’t think it can be a C&O error just for being soft so don’t blame the VAR too much. Does raise a question though as to whether the threshold should be lowered for...

Don’t know what they said, but not a great look when you’re booking three players on the team on the end of a bad challenge…

Yeah it’s like a red and a half, amazed he’s got away with a yellow

Agreed, the slow mo seemed to be proving that Hojlund’s arm was around the chest - fine, but falls into the category of “happens every set piece” if that’s the threshold. The key bit should’ve been just after that moment, where we see whether the hold has stopped Rodri’s momentum.

VAR intervention felt soft there - in the context of the discussion about high thresholds for C&O, surprised that was given. Obviously there’s a good shout for a pen, but Rodri’s also making the most of it and it’s not obvious that Hojlund’s arm round his chest causes the fall. Thoughts?

I think he accidentally gets into the position, but then doesn’t make any effort to get out of it. But I can forgive that given it all happens very quickly. I’d card if I thought the player had deliberately engineered a situation in which the ball was unplayable.

Both brilliant referees, but this did make me think of the de Jong on Alonso tackle in the 2010 WC Final…

I think he got this spot on, and actually agree with the no card. It’s a freak occurrence and no defender expects to end up sat on the ball in his own penalty area. The ball rolls back between his legs and from that point it’s tough for him to get out of it. IFK seems plenty enough.

Am I right in thinking that “clear and obvious” here would automatically apply to both challenges as per protocol (i.e. to overturn, both must be C&O not offences)? Or is there a case that the second challenge is C&O not a foul, the first one is not C&O either way, and therefore a VAR could...

Huge fan of Michael Oliver but he’s got to be off for the second one