Wolves journalist Liam Keen has given his view on Nelson Semedo and the penalty that he conceded late in their game against Leeds United.
Bruno Lage’s side looked as if they were going to get away from Elland Road with all three points after a goal from Hwang Hee-chan in the first-half.
However a penalty conceded by Semedo in injury time on Leeds United’s Joe Gelhardt meant that ultimately the spoils were shared, Rodrigo dispatching the spot kick to ensure the game finished 1-1.
Speaking after the game on the Express and Star YouTube channel (0:42), Keen gave his take on the incident and hinted that whilst it wouldn’t necessarily be out of his character to give away a spot-kick in that situation, he felt that the Portuguese defender may have been treated a little but harshly by the officials in this instance:
“For me, I still now having watched the replay, I still think that’s a really harsh penalty, I really do. For me, Semedo has made a few mistakes defensively in his Wolves career so far and given away a couple of penalties.
“I’m going to give him the benefit of doubt here, I just think that is really, the slightest of touches, Gelhardt bringing his leg back, almost initiating the contact for me, for me that’s not a penalty.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Keen’s comments about Nelson Semedo and Wolves
Does Semedo need to improve defensively?
Yes
No
It certainly does come under the category of ‘giving the referee a decision to make’, and in that instance you can certainly understand why the referee decided to give the penalty given the position that he was in, and even if the incident had gone to VAR, it would have been very hard to overturn it.
As Keen hints at, this isn’t the first time that Semedo has made a clumsy error in the box and given away a penalty. He also did so, again late in the game, against Aston Villa last season. And whilst these incidents are quite far apart, it certainly is something that you hope doesn’t become a more regular part of his game moving forward.
He’s already cost them two points this season with this error, hopefully he doesn’t end up costing them more with acts like this as the campaign moves on.
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