CRISTIAN ROMERO has been sent off in Tottenham’s drama-packed London derby with Chelsea.
The defender gave away a penalty in the 31st minute for a foul on Enzo Fernandez which was judged by VAR to be serious foul play.
The incident came after Moises Caicedo thought he had opened the scoring for Chelsea with an excellent shot from distance.
But, the goal was ruled out due to Nicolas Jackson being offside when Caicedo struck the ball, and the referee deeming him to be interfering with play.
Chelsea’s reprieve came when VAR showed Romero had fouled Fernandez in the lead-up to the disallowed goal.
Romero had taken the ball in the challenge, but his follow-through was so high that it was near to the knee of Fernandez by the time he made contact.
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The VAR replay was roundly booed by Spurs fans at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, with the home fans feeling as though Romero had won the ball.
Chelsea’s Cole Palmer duly converted from the spot, despite Vicario getting close to saving the pen.
Romero had narrowly avoided a red-card earlier in the first-half after kicking out at Levi Colwill.
Again, the VAR review came after Chelsea thought that they had found an equaliser.
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Sterling had the ball in the net in the 23rd minute after an excellent solo run.
But the goal was ruled out after Sterling’s initial shot was blocked by Porro and ricocheted back off Sterling’s hand.
Gary Neville said Romero was “lucky” not to have been sent off for his petulant kick which he said: “Reminded me of Beckham’s kick” against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup.
The kick-out was fresh off the back of Spurs narrowly escaping ANOTHER red card, this time for Destiny Udogie in the 18th minute.
Spurs’ left-back went flying with a scissor kick motion into to win the ball from Raheem Sterling.
While Udogie took the ball, Neville said he could have “snapped” Raheem Sterling had he made contact with the Chelsea winger.
However, the full-back was sent off in the second half after another lunge went wrong.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
