Manchester City centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov was lucky not to receive a red card early into his side’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford on Wednesday night.
On 16 minutes, he came rushing across and wiped out forward Kevin Schade when the German was clean through, but the referee only chose to brandish a yellow.
Brentford players swarmed around referee Sam Barrott and pleaded for the Uzbekistani to be sent off, but England held firm and stuck with his decision.
“It was a big moment,” said manager Keith Andrews. “I am very quick to defend officials. I have been drawn into nothing in my time in charge, but it is one I feel they didn’t get right tonight and the explanation of it being too far from goal doesn’t sit right.”
Former Man City defender Andy Hinchcliffe said on Sky Sports’ commentary: "He was in on goal, he would have got a shot away, it is a goalscoring opportunity.
"I can understand why Brentford are unhappy. He was in on goal and he was taken out. No covering defender was going to stop him."
By the laws of the game, Khusanov committed a red card offence as he “denied the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity”, as per Law 12 of Ifab’s rulebook.
Usually, such a clear and obvious error from the referee would be referred to VAR.
However, there is no VAR in the Carabao Cup until the semi-finals - the next round - due to the fact the technology is only available at Premier League venues.
League One side Cardiff City were still in the competition for the last eight and thus would not have been able to use VAR, with the stipulation ensuring a level playing field across all ties. They were knocked out by Chelsea on Tuesday.
The lack of VAR nevertheless gave City a reprieve as they avoided going a man down in a pivotal moment of the game.
The hosts later took the lead through a stunner from Rayan Cherki in the 32nd minute.
