Last night, OM won 2-1 on the pitch at Stade Rennais and made an excellent move in the standings by distancing themselves from most of their main direct competitors. However, this match was once again marked by fairly ambiguous refereeing decisions, which unsurprisingly caused some observers to react…
The channel consultant the Teamand former Werder Bremen player, Johan Micoud, indeed gave his opinion on the referee’s performance last night…
“Two insignificant hands…”
For the first contentious situation, we have to go back to the 31st minute, where, after a superb intervention from Rulli, the ball goes off in a bell and falls on the forearm of Amir Murillo, who was in contact with a Rennes player. A gesture that the referee of the match, Mr Kherradji, after viewing the VAR, deemed illicit and therefore sufficient to award a penalty to Rennes, a penalty which will once again be brilliantly diverted by Géeronimo Rulli. The second strange decision took place in the 84th minute, where on a free kick taken by Hojbjerg, the match referee immediately designated the penalty point after the Danish strike was blocked by the hand of a Rennes present in the wall. A decision which, after viewing the VAR, will logically be reviewed since the Breton was only protecting himself from the ball. Two different hand situations and two different refereeing decisions which did not fail to make Johan Micoud react:
« So in the same match, 2 insignificant hands: on one side we give a penalty and on the other we cancel it? In my opinion, in the spirit of the game, I don’t whistle any of them…”
also read: Rennes – OM (1-2): Marseille’s very big blow!
