A furious Unai Emery waited for referee Thomas Bramall in the Old Trafford tunnel after the very controversial defeat of Aston Villa at Manchester United. Villa entered the last day of the Premier League season and had to need a positive result – and others to go their way – to get a return to the Champions League.
But their hope was interrupted in the Theater of Dreams, because they have lost 2-0 and have to settle for the Europa League. Villa thought they had opened the score in the second half when Morgan Rogers took the ball of the United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir before rolling the ball into the empty net.
Referee Bramall, however, assessed that Rogers had polluted the keeper, blows the whistle before the goal was scored. That meant that VAR was unable to intervene and grant the goal.
A statement from the Premier League Match Center was: “The referee's call was a free kick for Manchester United with Bayindir to have the ball over the ball before Rogers got possessed. The whistle was blown by the referee before the ball entered the goal, so the incident could not be revised by the VAR.”
Villas frustrations only increased minutes later when Amad scored the most important opening goal. Christian Eriksen then made it two of the place, with the visitors left to call the controversial call.
After the last whistle, Emery waited for the mouth of the Old Trafford tunnel to talk to the officials and was angry the incident when they moved their way off the field.
It meant that Villa's impressive season ended a bit of a sour note, despite securing European football for the third consecutive season. But after reaching the Champions League quartals and within a mustache hair from pulling a wonderful comeback versus Paris Saint-Germain, they wanted a crack at the upper table.
Perhaps adding their regret was the fact that the results got in the way of Villa in the last beating of the domestic season. Emery's men needed a favor from elsewhere and got it with Newcastle who lost at home to Everton at home.
But they were unable to capitalize with an Under-Par performance from the Villans. United dominated a large part of the early go and then got a huge boost when Emiliano Martinez was shown a right red for refusing a goal opportunity.
That happened when Matty Cash's sub-found back-pass was selected by Rasmus Hojlund who tried to complete the World Cup winner. Martinez was taken into action and carried out a body check on the United Forward. Referee Bramall immediately gave him his marching orders with the VAR in Stockley Park who supported his decision.
A statement about that decision was: “The call from Red Card's referee to Martinez for refusing an obvious target scores (Dogso) was checked and confirmed by VAR.”