FORMER Premier League referee Mark Halsey says Rodri “can count himself lucky” not to have been sent-off against Liverpool.
Manchester City romped to a 4-1 victory over the Reds at the Etihad on Saturday lunchtime – despite falling behind.
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Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool into the lead on 17 minutes but Julian Alvarez levelled seconds before half-time.
But it was one-way traffic after the restart as quickfire goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan gave them the advantage.
Man of the Match Jack Grealish then capped off his superb performance grabbed a fourth with 16 minutes remaining.
However, many felt that City midfielder Rodri was fortunate to escape getting his marching orders while it was still goalless.
The Spanish international was booked for a cynical challenge on Diogo Jota, and then just seconds later he pulled back Cody Gakpo with both arms.
Liverpool’s players surrounded referee Simon Hooper, but the official only gave the City man a talking to as he escaped further punishment.
Now ex-Prem whistler Halsey exclusively gives his verdict on the incident to Sun Sport:
Rodri can count himself lucky Simon Hooper chose to referee the game in a lenient way because on another day his first half challenge on Cody Gakpo could have resulted in him getting a second yellow card for denying a promising attack.
There were a few players who could have received yellow cards but the referee was consistent in the way he dealt with careless challenges.
Fabinho got away with a couple of early challenges and Trent Alexander-Arnold might also have been booked on another day.
It will be interesting to see if Liverpool get charged with failing to control their players immediately after the Rodri incident
The players surrounded the referee and that’s not something we want to see.
Arsenal and Man City were hit with fines for failing to control their players after their heated Premier League encounter in February.
The FA’s charge came after both sets of players surrounded the referee at multiple times during the game.
And the Independent Regulatory Commission fined the clubs with Arsenal having to take a bigger punishment due to previous incidents.
Man City have been fined £75,000 after admitting the players did not behave in an orderly fashion in the 42nd and 64th minutes of the game.
Arsenal were fined £65,000 after admitting they failed to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion in the 56th minute.
An independent appeal board has added an additional £20,000 fine for a suspended charge after the club also drew the FA’s ire for their behaviour during an FA Cup game at Oxford.
It’s been a repeated issue for Arsenal with the players’ behaviour against Newcastle in January also seeing the club charged.
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