Carlo Ancelotti, says he “did not disrespect” the referee despite being sent off following a disallowed goal at the end of the 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
Ancelotti stepped on the pitch at full-time to confront Chris Kavanagh. This after Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s injury-time strike was ruled out for offside by the VAR.
Gylfi Sigurdsson was lying offside in front of United’s keeper, De Gea when the goal was scored, leading VAR to rule it out.
Ancelotti said he thought the midfielder “didn’t affect the vision of the goalkeeper.” He said he would be “disappointed” if the dismissal resulted in being banned for the trip to his former team Chelsea next Sunday.
The Everton manager is the first in the Premier League to be shown a red card since the rule was introduced last year.
On the same, Ancelotti said, ‘there was no explanation from the referee. I asked for one. After the game, there was a misunderstanding on the pitch. He sent me off. After that, I spoke to him calmly.”
“I want to keep this conversation private. Now he is doing a report to the Football Association and we will see.”
“For sure, I didn’t disrespect him. But I can understand also at the end of the game, there is a lot of pressure and excitement, a lot of important decisions but I didn’t disrespect him.”
How it happened.
The incident was a controversial end to a feisty game where both sides benefitted from goalkeepers’ errors. The match had a total of seven yellow cards shown.
However, the biggest drama came in injury time when De Gea saved Sigurdsson’s shot with Calvert Lewin tapping in via a deflection from a United player as the Icelandic midfielder lay on the floor in front of the goalkeeper.
The offside laws state that a player can be offside if he or she is “clearly obstructing the goalkeeper’ line of vision.”
United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he thought that was the case adding, “David told me he gets distracted because Gylfi Sigurdsson is there.”
But, Ancelotti had his verdict. He said, “I honestly think it was a difficult decision. They checked Gylfi’s position who was offside. But in our opinion, it didn’t affect the vision of the goalkeeper.”
Everton defender, Michael Keane described it as a “ridiculous” decision.
“How has that goal been disallowed for us? De Gea has gone the other way because he can see the ball and it was going towards the corner. Then it hit Harry Maguire. I think it was Maguire anyway and it’s gone right in the corner.”
“There’s not a chance he’s getting back to save it. VAR screwed us again.”