{"id":292923,"date":"2023-10-08T18:33:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T18:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=292923"},"modified":"2023-10-08T18:33:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T18:33:15","slug":"gary-neville-insists-mateo-kovacic-should-have-been-sent-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/gary-neville-insists-mateo-kovacic-should-have-been-sent-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off for a second yellow card after late challenge on Declan Rice&#8230; after the Man City midfielder survived a VAR review for nasty foul on Martin Odegaard<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mateo Kovacic avoided red card after VAR review for a nasty tackle on Odegaard\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Moments later he tackled Declan Rice but was now shown a second yellow<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Arsenal went on to win 1-0 thanks to Gabriel Martinelli&#8217;s late deflected strike\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Gary Neville believes Mateo Kovacic was &#8216;very lucky&#8217; to avoid a red card in the first half of Arsenal&#8217;s win over Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>Former Chelsea midfielder Kovacic caught Martin Odegaard high on the ankle with a tackle from behind but was only shown a yellow by referee Michael Oliver, a decision confirmed following a VAR check.<\/p>\n<p>Just minutes later, the Croatian caught Declan Rice but Oliver ignored Arsenal&#8217;s pleas for the City star to be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Neville, a co-commentator for the clash at the Emirates Stadium, said Kovacic was fortunate not to be given his marching orders.<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;He&#8217;s in trouble. Oh, no. I think he&#8217;s lucky. I think he&#8217;s very lucky,&#8217; Neville said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/08\/19\/76308021-12607915-image-a-1_1696788042381.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mateo Kovacic was fortunate not to see red for a lunge on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/08\/17\/76306173-12607915-image-a-2_1696784370980.jpg\" height=\"447\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Following a VAR review, the midfielder was shown a yellow card by referee Michael Oliver\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/08\/19\/76308023-12607915-image-a-2_1696788117591.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Man City midfielder avoided a second yellow for a challenge on Declan Rice minutes later<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;I think he gets Declan Rice&#8217;s right foot. He does. What is he doing? I think he should be off. It&#8217;s madness from Kovacic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;Pep Guardiola must be thinking about making a substitution. The first one was close. That one was just crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The former Manchester United defender said it was &#8216;a mistake from the referee. &#8216;I think Kovacic has got to go for that. I&#8217;m amazed he&#8217;s not,&#8217; he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Former Arsenal star Theo Walcott insisted Kovacic should have been given a red card for the foul on Odegaard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span>&#8216;As soon as it went to VAR, I thought, and I&#8217;ve seen it slowed down, red card straight away,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s not a nice tackle. You can see the way he gets really low on the ankle. For me, it&#8217;s a red card. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any question. That&#8217;s not me putting my\u00a0Arsenal\u00a0head on, I genuinely think that&#8217;s endangering the player.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>But Micah Richards argued yellow was the correct decision. &#8216;Theo&#8217;s got a point. It&#8217;s slowed down here, it&#8217;s worse, of course. I think yellow card is the right decision on this particular one, just because of the force he was going at,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It always looks worse slow. At full speed, it did look bad but I think a yellow was the right decision. He went to press and he got the press wrong.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/08\/18\/76306451-12607915-image-a-4_1696784425042.jpg\" height=\"483\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Gary Neville said he was &#8216;very lucky&#8217; to have got away without sending off in the Arsenal clash<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/08\/19\/76308073-12607915-image-a-3_1696788175810.jpg\" height=\"475\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Odegaard was left in pain from Kovacic&#8217;s tackle, which pundits believed should have led to a red card<\/p>\n<p>Richards admitted the tackle on Rice merited a second yellow. &#8216;I think that is a yellow card, it&#8217;s the bottom of his ankle. He gets the press wrong. I think that&#8217;s a second yellow card.<\/p>\n<p>Neville suggested that Kovacic&#8217;s challenge was more severe than the one that led to Curtis Jones receiving a red card the previous week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In that incident, the Liverpool midfielder accidentally made contact with Yves Bissouma when his foot rolled over the top of the ball and caught the Spurs midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>However, in contrast to Kovacic&#8217;s situation, VAR official Darren England instructed referee Simon Hooper to review the monitor, where they observed a still image showing Jones&#8217;s studs making contact with Bissouma.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones was dismissed and Liverpool appealed but the FA upheld the decision, meaning the Reds midfielder will serve a three-game ban.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12607915\/Gary-Neville-insists-Mateo-Kovacic-sent-second-yellow-card-late-challenge-Declan-Rice-Man-City-midfielder-survived-VAR-review-nasty-foul-Martin-Odegaard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off for a second yellow card after late challenge on Declan Rice&#8230; after the Man City midfielder survived a VAR review for nasty foul on Martin Odegaard Mateo Kovacic avoided red card after VAR review for a nasty tackle on Odegaard\u00a0 Moments later he tackled Declan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/gary-neville-insists-mateo-kovacic-should-have-been-sent-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gary Neville insists Mateo Kovacic should have been sent off for a second yellow card after late challenge on Declan Rice&#8230; 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