ENGLAND defender Alex Greenwood was sent off for time wasting during Manchester City’s WSL clash with Chelsea this afternoon.
The 30-year-old was penalised while taking a free kick in the 39th minute of the match.
With the ball just inside Man City’s half, Greenwood took around 25 seconds to find the pass.
But just as she went to take the kick, referee Emily Heaslip blew her whistle before giving the England Lioness a second yellow.
Greenwood, who stood still in disbelief, did not receive a warning prior to her dismissal.
And her team-mates were left furious as a result, with Laia Aleixandri, Jill Roord and Chloe Kelly booked for dissent.
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England legend Ian Wright took to social media to criticise the “embarrassing” officiating.
He tweeted: “Embarrassing. They keep telling us about laws of the game but where is common sense! Why would she be wasting time??? Kmt.”
Euro 2022 Golden Boot winner and Arsenal star Beth Mead agreed, adding: “Awful decision, never time wasting.”
Meanwhile, WSL legend Casey Stoney branded the decision “ridiculous” and a “joke”, writing: “Possibly the most ridiculous red card I’ve ever seen. How to ruin a game @BarclaysWSL. Absolute joke!!!!!”
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Man City were leading the match against holding WSL Champions Chelsea 1-0 when they went down to 10 players.
Kelly opened the scoring in spectacular style just seven minutes into the clash with an excellent strike from 25-yards out.
England Lioness Lauren Hemp was sent off in the late stages after picking up a second yellow card.
The first was for dissent, while the second followed a challenge on Lauren James.
Chelsea went on to level the score in the sixth minute of added time through Guro Reiten.
After the match, Man City boss Gareth Taylor claimed that Greenwood’s red card was a “gamechanger”.
Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: “The gamechanger is Alex’s [Greenwood] red card. It changes everything.
“It is frustrating, particularly when we seemed to have gone from here to here [one extreme to another] on dishing out those yellow cards.
“It is a difficult one to take because the players were magnificent defending the box against some really physical, direct players. Then with Alanna [Kennedy] off the pitch we think Khiara [Keating] has pulled off the save at the vital moment [before Chelsea scored].
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“I’m so proud of the players. We were tremendous last week. This week was a different game. I spoke to Emma [Hayes] at the end and neither of us enjoyed that because those few decisions were a spoiler.
“All we want to see is consistency. If that is going to happen in a game like that, then we need to see that applied across every game.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
