Wayne Rooney: "It's an absolute shocker"
In the absence of VAR, Chris Kavanagh and his officials had a dreadful evening at the office. Working as a pundit on the BBC, Wayne Rooney has described the decision to award Newcastle a free-kick instead of a penalty for a Lucas Digne handball that clearly occurred a couple of yards inside the box as “one of the worst decisions” he has ever seen in football.
It was one of several contenders for the accolade in this match alone, but luckily justice was served when Newcastle scored on the back of the free-kick in question. “That decision is one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football because at no stage was Digne out of the penalty box,” said Rooney.
“He is three or four yards inside. The linesman is just in front of it and you can clearly see how much he is in the penalty box. The referee looked like he blew and looked like he was listening to someone in his ear, so I’m assuming the linesman gave the decision and it’s an absolute shocker.”
Tonight may well have proved that some match officials have become over-reliant on VAR and are now too scared to make big decisions themselves. In this match alone, Villa’s opener was offside but allowed to stand, Lucas Digne was only booked for what seemed a clear red card offence, Newcastle were denied a stonewall penalty and could conceivably have been awarded another spot-kick for a Pau Torres foul on Dan Burn at a corner. What a shambles …
Updated
Sandro Tonali: "Every player plays to go to Wembley"
“I think I start every season scoring a bit late through February and March but I am happy because we work a lot every week to win every game and this win is for these fans. They are amazing and deserve it,” says Newcastle’s man of the match. “Of course [we want to go back to Wembley]. Every player plays to go to Wembley but this time for FA Cup. We play every game to win so, we hope so.”
