Pep Guardiola expressed his confusion with referee Simon Hooper’s controversial decision in Man City’s 3-3 draw with Tottenham last night.
The highlight match of round 14 of the Premier League between Manchester City and Tottenham ended with a score of 3-3, reflecting correctly dramatic chase match between the two teams. However, the home team certainly could not be satisfied because they were deprived of a chance to score ten goals at the end of the match.
The ball took place in injury time when Haaland was fouled in the middle of the field while Man City was counterattacking. Referee Simon Hooper gave the advantage and number 9 immediately stood up to pass to Jack Grealish facing the goal but was whistled for a free kick.
At that time, Jack Grealish was not offside and passed all of Tottenham’s defenders. In front of him was only goalkeeper Vicario and that was clearly a great opportunity for Man City to score a 4-3 victory. However, everything was ruined by referee Simon Hooper’s decision.
A situation where if the referee hadn’t blown the whistle, Man City could have scored to win 4-3 against Tottenham (photo: ESPN)
After the match, coach Pep Guardiola admitted that the whole Man City team was very disappointed. He also expressed his confusion when the referee changed the decision in just a few seconds but refused to criticize the black-shirted king.
“My players are disappointed. Even the referee, if he played for Man City today, he would be disappointed by that action, that’s for sure.
I made mistakes, the players also made mistakes. But the referee’s decision today surprised me because at the moment Erling fell, the whistle was reasonable.
But when he stood up and continued playing and the referee signaled for the match to continue, Haaland had just finished passing and the referee stopped the match. I don’t want to criticize him.
During many years of training, I sometimes lost my mind on the touchline and behaved inappropriately. But in this case, I’m not as comfortable commenting as Mikel Arteta.” Sky Sport quotes Pep.
Pep Guardiola “falls back” when Man City was held to a draw by Tottenham at Etihad Stadium (photo: Getty)
Previously, Pep Guardiola’s former partner, Coach Mikel Arteta, was charged by the English Football Federation for making a statement criticizing the referee after Arsenal vs Newcastle match last month. Therefore, although very disappointed, Man City’s captain does not want to “stress” to avoid trouble.
Notably, the recent Man City vs Tottenham match was not the first time referee Simon Hooper caused controversy. He and his colleagues were suspended in round 1 of the Premier League after causing Wolves to unfairly lose a penalty in a 0-1 loss to MU.
The peak of that controversy was Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Liverpool at the end of September. Referee Hooper continuously made decisions that were detrimental to The Kop such as canceling goals and drawing confusing cards, causing the Premier League Referee Board to that had to apologize.
