VAR gives Walker red-card reprieve as pundits insist defender got lucky
MANCHESTER CITY’S quadruple chase survived a major VAR scare at Wembley last night when England defender Kyle Walker escaped a red card in their FA Cup semi-final win over Brighton.
Referee Anthony Taylor took fully two minutes to watch replays of Walker locking heads with Brighton’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh before deciding the City full-back had not intentionally butted his opponent and should be let off with a yellow.
However BBC pundit Martin Keown said: ‘He (Walker) flicked his head. When you see it in real speed, he should be sent off. When you see the slo-mo, which was probably for the VAR, he gets away with it.’
Alan Shearer also agreed that Walker was ‘very, very lucky not to get a red card’.
Mail on Sunday columnist Jermaine Jenas said: ‘It was close and any other referee could quite possibly have given him a straight red.’
City led through an early goal from Gabriel Jesus when Walker’s retaliation took place after half-an-hour. He was angered by a foul from behind Jahanbakhsh and jerked his head as they pressed their foreheads against each other.
Walker was taken off at half-time by Pep Guardiola and City nervously held onto their 1-0 win to reach their first FA Cup final since 2013, against either Watford or Wolves who meet today.
City winger Raheem Sterling believes the result showed City’s mettle, saying: ‘They (Brighton) played brilliant, caused problems from set-pieces and stayed in the game for long periods.
‘It shows the spirit we have to hold on and get through it.’
City are going for an unprecedented quadruple having already lifted the Carabao Cup. They are currently second behind Liverpool in the Premier League with a game in hand and play their Champions League quarter-final first leg away to Spurs on Tuesday.
However, Sterling downplayed the significance of a potential clean sweep, ading: ‘There’s some huge games but we just look forward to the next one on Tuesday against Tottenham, that’s the most important one and we focus solely on that.’