Fabinho escaped a red card for his tackle on Bernardo Silva because it was not deemed to be serious foul play by the on-field referee or the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) during Liverpool’s draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus gave City the lead twice in the first half but Liverpool equalised within 10 minutes on both occasions, first through Diogo Jota and then Sadio Mane.
With the game between the Premier League’s top two delicately poised at 2-2, the midfield battle intensified and when Mane gave the ball away in his own half and Bernardo surged forward, Fabinho was only able to bring him down to snuff out the danger.
The Brazilian midfielder stretched and caught the City playmaker on the left ankle, apologising for the challenge as soon as he got up.
Referee Anthony Taylor awarded a free-kick and booked the midfielder, and that decision was also checked by VAR, who quickly announced “check complete” and that no further action was necessary.
i has been told the VAR decided the tackle was indeed “reckless” but did not constitute serious foul play, and therefore a yellow card rather than a red was the right decision.
The explanation is unlikely to quell the frustrations of City fans, who chanted “off, off, off” from the stands and booed the colour of the card when it was shown to Fabinho.
But they have also been on the other side of perhaps the most high-profile VAR decision of the season; Everton were wrongly denied a penalty for a Rodri handball that would have probably earned them a point in their clash with City back in February.
The Premier League subsequently apologised to Everton for the mistake, but they turned down their latest appeal against a VAR decision when midfielder Allan saw his on-field yellow was upgraded to a red last month, for a challenge that was not dissimilar to Fabinho’s
“The frustrating thing for us we had, in my opinion, the most blatant one against Man City – the referee didn’t see it, VAR got it wrong and we get an apology,” manager Frank Lampard said at the time before lodging an unsuccessful appeal.
“This one the referee sees it, he delivers the correct verdict of a yellow card and VAR somehow changes it.
“Did you seriously endanger a player for kicking him on the foot? That’s football.
“It’s a yellow, yes. It’s a strong yellow, yes. Did it warrant an overturn? No.
He added: “It’s not a clear change, you shouldn’t lose a player for three games. Now we’re losing a pivotal player for three games, and we lost a point against Man City.
“How many more things can we lose with the benefit of VAR? Not just human error, the benefit of VAR has gone wrong for us twice now.”
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