Gary Neville told Sky Sports on Super Sunday that Aymeric Laporte should have been sent off as Manchester City beat Tottenham in the League Cup final on Sunday at Wembley.
In the first half, Tottenham broke on the counter on two occasions – twice with Lucas Moura – with the Spurs man being brought down by Laporte on both occasions.
The on-field referee, Paul Tierney, acknowledged that it was a foul on the Tottenham speedster on both occasions, but only brandished a yellow card when the second foul was committed.
Well, before Laporte could open the scoring, in what is now controversial circumstances, Neville thought he should have been off, so the anger would have sky-rocketed in North London when he scored.
“He should be booked (for his first challenge),” said Neville. “Tottenham players are around Paul Tierney and rightly so.
“He has to book him. It’s as simple as that. Laporte gets himself into a bit of a mess. He (Moura) is away. That’s poor refereeing. That’s a standard one that.
On his second challenge: “He should be off! He should be off! That’s something I am not going to change my mind on.
“The first one is a standard booking, as is that one. Moura is brilliant. We know he has the pace.
On when Laporte scored: “There will be questions over that first half. Those two tackles. But he’s on the pitch and he could have won it for Manchester City.”
The problem is that the fouls were given by the referee and, in normal circumstances, both those challenges are yellow cards.
So, it begs the question as to why the second foul was a yellow card, yet the first one wasn’t.
Either way, Spurs fans would have been raging when Laporte towered up their defence to head in the winner.
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