Former England striker Alan Shearer is concerned over how strict the refereeing may be during the opening days of the World Cup after three red cards were shown in Mexico’s 2-0 win over South Africa.
The tournament opener saw Yaya Sithole sent off for bringing down Brian Gutierrez just outside of the box and was followed by team-mate Themba Zwane after a VAR review for appearing to strike Roberto Alvarado in the face during a tangle. Cesar Montes was then dismissed for the hosts in stoppage time.
Speaking on the Rest Is Football podcast, Shearer said: “My slight concern would be is it’s like the start of the season when you expect to be really tight on everything and I think that could be the case here, is that for the first 10 days or so, you might see decisions that we’re going to be talking about.“
There was a couple of them on the edge, I thought. The first one was definitely a red card and then the other two I think were on the edge. Particularly the one for the slap on the face, I’m not sure where else he could have put his arm.”
Co-host Micah Richards added: “I don’t think it was a red card. I think it was soft. If you start giving red cards for that, all he did was try to use his body, unfortunately he used his arm and it did touch him in his face and there was one angle where it did look really bad.“So maybe you don’t want to go too hard on the referees, but I don’t think it’s a red card.”
PA
