Glasgow Rangers legend Ally McCoist was livid with the decision to give Royal Antwerp a penalty during their clash in the Europa League against the Gers on Thursday.
McCoist angry
With the score at 1-1, Antwerp were given a penalty for a foul from Steven Davis on Lior Refaelov despite minimal contact. The latter duly converted the spot-kick to put his side in front.
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McCoist was covering the game for BT Sport, and he made it clear how angry he was with the decision. He said (via HITC):
“It’s a scandalous decision. I’m embarrassed for Refaelov going down, but I’m equally if not more embarrassed for Kabakov the Bulgarian referee.
“I mean, that is embarrassing to say the least. Look at the referee. He’s watching it, he’s absolutely watching it.
“And do you know the problem we’ve got? We’ve actually got VAR now. It’s just compounded the referee’s mistake.”
Hard to argue
It was no doubt a soft decision – Davis barely touched his opponent, who went down with incredible ease. VAR remains a big problem in football. The issue is that many decisions remain subjective – no amount of replays can change what referees believe a foul should be.
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From a positive point of view, the Gers should be proud of how they reacted. That goal came in the eighth minute of injury time in the first-half – it would have been easy for the 54-time Scottish champions’ heads to drop after conceding so close to the interval. After the break, though, they came out fighting and actually prevailed 3-1 in the second 45 minutes. The result gives them a big chance of progressing to the next round of the competition.
In other news, Rangers fans slam this SFA appointment.
