Thomas Tuchel couldn’t hide his fury as Manuel Ugarte somehow avoided a red card against England – despite being booked twice!
The Three Lions were held to a 1-1 draw with Uruguay at Wembley after VAR awarded the visitors a penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage-time.
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Arsenal’s Ben White went from villain to hero and back again after making his first England appearance in four years.
The 28-year-old looked to have silenced the Wembley boo boys that greeted his substitution by scoring his first senior international goal.
However, White was penalised by VAR in stoppage time for a challenge on Federico Viñas that saw Uruguay awarded a penalty.
Real Madrid star Federico Valverde duly made no mistake from the spot, but the result left a bitter taste in the mouths of Tuchel and Co.
That was because VAR had already twice failed to intervene on earlier controversial incidents surrounding two red cards for Uruguay.
First, Ronald Araújo somehow avoided being sent off for a potential leg-breaking tackle on Phil Foden that left Tuchel seething.
The Manchester City playmaker attempted to continue playing for a few minutes before he was replaced by Cole Palmer, having limped around the pitch.
The Chelsea talisman then proved the catalyst for the game’s most bizarre moment when he was wiped out by Ugarte on 70 minutes.
The Manchester United midfielder was cautioned for the foul and then received a second yellow card five minutes from time.
Replays showed Ugarte being booked by German referee Sven Jablonski for dissent in the aftermath of White’s opening goal.
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Ugarte shown two yellows but one rescinded
To add insult to injury, the fourth official allegedly said that the second yellow was rescinded and Ugarte was hurriedly subbed off.
ITV presenter Mark Pougatch subsequently confirmed that Ugarte’s yellow card was supposedly shown instead to José María Gimenez.
In response, Ian Wright said: “They are making it up as they go along, like we didn’t see what we saw.
“The challenge on Palmer was Ugarte, and then it looked like he got done for dissent as well.”
It was recently confirmed that VAR will be allowed to review second yellow cards and corners at the World Cup, but it is not yet in place.
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Tuchel issues Foden update
On the current state of Foden, and Noni Madueke, who was also forced off through injury, an irate Tuchel told eSPORTY’s Faye Carruthers post-match: “No VAR checked these two tackles, but then suddenly they checked the soft one in the end.
“So very strange decision-making. I’m very sad and upset, of course, for Noni, because I think he was electric, he was on fire.
“He was ready to go from the start. And we built the structure for him to go in one-on-ones. And they play almost man-mark.
“So I think it was a matter of time until he could make the difference for us. Very, very sad. I hope it’s not too bad.
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“And I think Phil got away with it, because it could have been horrible. I thought he broke his leg.
“I was just six meters away or eight meters away. It sounded terrible.
And then we needed, of course, the break for treatment.
“And there was no check on VAR, which was very disappointing. But it also affected the game because we had to rush into substitutions, which we would have liked to take later in two slots.
“And then suddenly we lost the slots. So it cost us a little bit. But we dealt with everything quite well.
“No one got upset, except for the coach. But no one got upset on the field and played with a positive attitude, and it was a good step.”
