The Champions League final clash between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain was filled with controversy.
Fans of the French champions believe that Cristhian Mosquera should’ve been sent off, while Bukayo Saka’s handball should’ve led to a penalty.
Arsenal supporters, on the other hand, felt that the referee gave them nothing in the second half and even denied them a clear penalty.
Emmanuel Petit has now delivered his verdict on the decision.
Now that you’ve all had time to reflect, why did Arsenal lose the Champions League final?
Emmanuel Petit says the referee was ‘upset’ with Arsenal during the Champions League final
Daniel Siebert was given the task of officiating the Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.
The German referee let things go early on, but as the game went on, his level of leniency seemed to reduce drastically.
Just before half-time, Siebert awarded a corner to Arsenal. Saka took his time to get information across to the players in the box and get towards the corner flag. Just as Arsenal prepared to take it, he blew the half-time whistle.
Then, just moments into the second half, the official booked Mosquera for time-wasting during a throw-in – without a warning.
Petit thinks that contributed to Arsenal being denied a penalty when Nuno Mendes appeared to foul Noni Madueke inside the box.
He said on talkSPORT: “In the second half, I don’t know if you noticed, but the referee gave straight away a yellow card to an Arsenal player (Mosquera) because he was trying to win time. He was upset about that.
“In the second half, every referee decision was against Arsenal. That’s why I’m coming to the penalty. This situation between Madueke and Mendes, I’m pretty sure that the referee was a little bit annoyed about the behaviour of Arsenal trying to win seconds and minutes.”
Jim White then asked: “And that would influence him, you think?”
Petit: “I think, for me, that was a penalty, and I’m quite disappointed that the VAR didn’t come into the picture saying to the referee, ‘you have to get a quick look’.”
Tell us if Arsenal were robbed during the Champions League final vs PSG
People are getting it all wrong about the Madueke-Mendes penalty incident
The verdict on the Madueke-Mendes penalty incident has been mixed.
Most Arsenal fans are adamant that it was a foul and deserved a spot kick, but many other rival supporters think it was just a coming together.
Even on Arsenal Insider’s TalkingPoints post, where you can have your own say by clicking this link, many are of the opinion that it was never a penalty.
However, what people aren’t considering is what happened after the coming together.
Once Madueke entered the box, he was in control of his body and the ball. Mendes wasn’t, and he clearly brought the Arsenal winger down.
That should’ve been a penalty, but there’s nothing anybody can do about it now.
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