Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith reacts to penalty incident involving Vladimir Coufal
On Sky Sports‘ live coverage of the West Ham and Manchester United game, Alan Smith revealed that he was surprised VAR didn’t intervene in an incident involving Vladimir Coufal.
The Czech Republic international appeared to catch Cristiano Ronaldo in the second half in the box, but Martin Atkinson played on.
However, Smith believes that Coufal might have been a bit lucky to have got away with one and is shocked that VAR didn’t tell the referee to look at the pitchside screen.
He said: “I’m a little surprised he wasn’t asked to go to the monitor.”
Coufal a tad fortunate?
In real-time, it did appear to be just a coming together, but on the replay, it did appear as if the 29-year-old clipped Ronaldo in the box and was probably lucky to get away with not giving a penalty away.
This match was a real end-to-end encounter, and it is very clear that the Irons can go toe-to-toe with the best sides in the country.
However, that penalty could have changed everything, and we do feel as if Coufal was a bit lucky.
It seems odd that Atkinson wasn’t told to go to the screen when it didn’t appear to be totally accidental.
However, in the end, it didn’t really matter as Jesse Lingard returned to the London Stadium and scored a late winner.
Despite this, it was still a great match, and it is clear that the Irons are more than good enough to compete on multiple fronts.
In other West Ham news, Karen Carney blown away by one Hammers player against Manchester United.
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