Rio Ferdinand and Peter Crouch slammed the referee’s decision to send off Jordan Ayew against Liverpool.
Crystal Palace were 1-0 up against the Premier League title hopefuls at Selhurst Park with just 15 minutes of normal time remaining. But the tide of the game changed as Ayew picked up his second soft yellow card for bringing down Harvey Elliott, leaving Palace to play the remaining minutes with a man down.
They were punished just 98 seconds later as Mohamed Salah equalised, before Elliott scored a stunning winner from the edge of the box one minute into the ten additional minutes.
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Ayew’s second bookable offence was deemed soft by the TNT Sports commentators as he brought down his opponent while the Reds were launching a counter. They expressed their frustration towards referee Andy Madley for making a game-impacting decision despite the foul being a tame one.
And pundits Ferdinand and Crouch were in agreement post-match. “Sometimes you’ve got to factor in that this person is on a yellow card [before booking them again],” Ferdinand said.
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“There’s no animosity within the tackle. I know it was a tactical foul. But I don’t believe that was a yellow card at all.”
Crouch then added: “If Joe Gomez was in, then potentially. But there was cover around and he wasn’t going through on goal. I think it was a little bit harsh.
“You could tell in the stadium, no player or fans reacted. It felt like the referee made the decision on his own.”
It was not the only controversial moment in Saturday afternoon’s opening Premier League fixture, however, with VAR once again sparking outrage in the build-up to Crystal Palace’s goal.
Jean-Philippe Mateta had been brought down by Jarell Quansah inside the box. But the game went on for almost two minutes before VAR intervened and pulled play back to award a penalty, which was converted by the Palace striker.
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