Newcastle United supporters will surely be furious to see this footage of Rodrigo Bentancur’s headbutt (originally aired on Sky Sports) on Allan Saint-Maximin, which did not see the referee issue a red card.
Eddie Howe would have been delighted near the end of the first half when he saw Fabian Schar’s low free-kick nestle into the bottom corner to give his side a lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, however, they conceded just minutes later via a Ben Davies header.
Should Bentancur have been sent off?
Yes!
No!
The two goals were not the only talking points come the half-time whistle, though, with Bentancur and Saint-Maximin going head to head after what appeared to be a nothing incident when the ball went out for a throw-in.
However, the Uruguayan clearly didn’t see it that way as he appeared to lean his head towards the face of Saint-Maximin, but Martin Atkinson nor the VAR saw it bad enough to warrant anything more than a yellow card.
Mark Clattenburg has even come out since and said that Bentancur was lucky to escape a red card.
TIF Thoughts on Bentancur’s headbutt…
No doubt Newcastle fans will be furious as Bentancur clearly rests his head on Allan Saint Maximin’s and uses an extra bit of force and downward movement before things got broken up, which to us showed a bit of intent.
In the end, Newcastle managed to put on a masterclass in how to collapse after taking the lead and ending up losing 5-1, but Howe will likely be thinking about how the game could’ve played out if Bentancur was given his marching orders in the first half, which may have been expected given what happened with Arsenal’s Nicolas Pepe last season when he was sent off for something similar.
The consistency will be another thing that angers Newcastle fans as in the example with Pepe above it’s almost identical yet this has gone unpunished. As well as this, it isn’t the first time that Martin Atkinson has made a rather strange decision as the Magpies will remember his controversial call not to award Ryan Fraser a penalty against Manchester City, which caused all kinds of commotion and reaction.
In other news: NUFC could be set for near-major saving after claims surrounding 21 y/o La Liga ace – opinion