Portuguese referee Duarte Gomes believes that referee Clement Turpin ‘made a mistake’ by not punishing Arsenal forward Kai Havertz.
Arsenal faced Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday night and went into the game trailing 1-0 from the first leg.
The Gunners found a first-half goal from Leandro Trossard to level the tie up at 1-1, but couldn’t break down Porto to find another.
The game went all the way to penalties with Arsenal prevailing 4-2, booking their passage into the quarter-finals.
There were a couple of big decisions for referee Clement Turpin in the second half – and two involved Kai Havertz.
Portuguese referee on Kai Havertz incidents
One involved Arsenal appearing to have scored that crucial second goal.
A ball over the top saw Havertz collide with Porto defender Pepe and goalkeeper Diogo Costa.
The ball fell to Martin Odegaard who dinked the ball home, but the goal was disallowed as Havertz clearly pulled Pepe’s shirt to force the error.
Former UEFA and FIFA referee Duarte Gomes has now reviewed the game for A Bola in Portugal and suggested that the officiating team and VAR did the right thing by ruling out the goal.
“Before scoring, Havertz grabbed Pepe’s shirt and pulled him, unbalancing him due to a clear foul. The refereeing team did well to cancel out what would have been Arsenal’s second goal,” said Gomes.
Gomes also commented on the other Havertz talking point as he pushed Porto boss Sergio Conceicao on the sidelines.
Havertz escaped punishment and Gomes feels that referee Clement Turpin ‘made a mistake’ by not booking him, believing that a yellow card was ‘mandatory’ in that situation.
Gomes felt that Havertz was showing unsportsmanlike conduct and felt that he should have already been on a yellow card before eventually being booked later in extra time.
“Havertz pushed the FC Porto coach, in a thoughtless attitude (it’s true) but which was still unsportsmanlike and above all potentially destabilising in the game. The yellow card was “mandatory” there. Clement made a mistake by not taking disciplinary action,” said Gomes.
Gomes may be minded to side with Porto here, given that he is a Portuguese former referee, but he is right about the Odegaard goal.
Havertz clearly tugged on Pepe’s shirt, which is almost a little naive because he could have got away with it by just leaning on the defender rather than so clearly pulling on his shirt.
The Conceicao incident was perhaps exaggerated; it was a little push and nothing more, so we can’t really slate referee Turpin for not taking action.
Arsenal won’t really care either way now; they are through to the last eight and their Champions League dream continues.
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