Jamie Carragher has raged at Bruno Fernandes after delivering his verdict on Phil Foden’s red card during Sunday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford
Jamie Carragher has slammed Bruno Fernandes for his role in Phil Foden’s red card during Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City and admitted: “I can’t accept it.”
City forward Foden was sent off in the 23rd minute at Old Trafford after kicking out at Fernandes.
Foden had been fouled by Fernandes near the far touchline and the United captain first appeared to have a swipe at the City man, who was sat on the floor.
But Foden didn’t react well to Fernandes and then kicked back, catching him with both feet and straight into the lower abdomen, sending the Portuguese midfielder down in theatrical fashion.
Referee Michael Oliver was in no hesitation but to brandish the red card to Foden, who was left stunned, while Fernandes was unpunished despite kicking the City player first.
Delivering his verdict, former Liverpool defender Carragher hit out at Fernandes for his role in the incident and believes he went down “pretending to be hurt”.
Carragher told Sky Sports: “I agree, Michael Oliver was far too quick to give the red card. It happened really quickly and his view wasn’t amazing. I think that’s one where you let VAR sort it out themselves. Two yellows for me would have been fine.
“But I was really disappointed with Bruno Fernandes. There’s a lot of things in football that we like and don’t like, everybody has opinions.
“My big one that I really don’t like is people going down pretending they’re hurt. I’ve said on this show before that I haven’t got the biggest problem in the world with someone gaining a penalty or an advantage for your team with a decision, maybe getting a goal.
“Or if a defender does a silly tackle, I’m looking at my striker thinking ‘don’t get out of the way’. I’m not accepting diving but that’s part of the game.
“But doing that, I can’t have it. I know there might be Manchester United fans at home thinking I’m only saying this because he’s a Manchester United player.
“On this show five or six years ago, Harry Kane did exactly the same in a game for Tottenham and I said the same thing that night.
“I can’t accept it. I’m not having it. That reaction from Bruno there should not be the reaction for what Foden did. It was a brush with his foot.”
Despite going down to 10 men within the opening half an hour, City went on to beat United 1-0 thanks to Erling Haaland’s controversial 60th minute strike. The Norwegian bundled the ball home at the back post after getting on the end of Josko Gvardiol’s deflected cross. But the linesman waved up his flag and deemed it as offside.
However, VAR overruled the on-field decision as they ruled that Haaland was onside and that Enzo Fernandez, who was positioned in an offside position, did not touch the ball in the centre and did not interfere with Lisandro Martinez, who was the United defender closest to both City players.
Pro Ref have since come out and admitted there was a ‘error of judgement’ in giving the goal and that they should have stuck with the on-field offside call.
City won’t care, however, having ran out with a 1-0 win to keep their 100 per cent record going alongside Arsenal, who are the only other side to have picked up 12 points from 12 in the Premier League this season.
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