DOMINIC CALVERT-LEWIN suffered the first red card of his career — after another VARcical call.
The dullest of FA Cup third round snooze-fests at Selhurst Park was momentarily sparked into life as Calvert-Lewin was shown a bizarre straight red in the 79th minute.
In real time, referee Chris Kavanagh saw nothing wrong with the Toffees forward’s lunged tackle on Crystal Palace defender Nathaniel Clyne. The ball was won and play carried on.
Clyne rolled around on the ground for long enough that VAR reared its ugly head with a booming announcement on the big screen to the surprise of the entire ground.
In slow-motion, studs were up but barely made any contact with Clyne’s shin, explaining the look of pure bafflement on Calvert-Lewin’s face when Kavanagh sent him off after a lengthy review on the pitch side monitor. Harsh is an understatement.
Fans slammed the decision to send the striker off on social media.
One posted: “No physical contact at all. Goodness what is going on.”
A second wrote: “Discgraceful decision by a terrible ref.”
A third commented: “An absolute joke. The beautiful game is finished RIP FOOTBALL.”
Fortunately for Sean Dyche – who was both seething and perplexed on the sidelines – the first red card of Calvert-Lewin’s career did not cost his team against Roy Hodgson’s toothless Eagles outfit, going close with a few Eberechi Eze attempts.
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Dyche’s night got worse as he then watched Dwight McNeil also leave the pitch – carried off on a stretcher after an awkward fall late on.
In truth, neither side deserved a fourth round spot with an unwanted replay on the horizon later this month. Hopefully that one will have more footballing quality on show.
Hodgson made just two changes with Matheus Franca and Jeffrey Schlupp replacing Jordan Ayew – away with Ghana for the African Cup of Nations – and Michael Olise, who limped off with another hamstring injury at the end of Palace’s 3-1 Prem win over Brentford last week.
Brazilian wonderkid Franca, 19, was making his first start for the club since joining on an initial £17m from Flamengo in the summer.
Dyche also went strong but was clearly not happy with the manner of his side’s recent 3-0 thumping at the hands of Wolves. Jordan Pickford was dropped for the first time this campaign, ending a 24-game stretch, while Seamus Coleman and Arnaut Danjuma were chucked in too.
A dour first 13 minutes were interrupted by a similarly woeful dive from Eze that earned him a deserved early yellow card.
In the swirling wind and rain, Everton were dealing with the conditions far better. Danjuma went close twice, smashing the side-netting before forcing Dean Henderson into his first meaningful save, tipping over from a tight angle.
Donning a tracksuit and old-school Copa Mundial boots, Hodgson was growing frustrated at Nathaniel Clyne’s inability to feed their Samba Boy down the right flank.
It took 23 minutes for Franca to get his first real run at Toffees left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko, skipping past the Ukrainian before being clobbered by James Tarkowski just outside the box.
Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta was living off scraps, but Eze showed magical glimpses, teeing up Jefferson Lerma from 18 yards for a shot that had Virginia worried.
With what was on offer, there is a reason Palace came into this one with just one league win in nine and Everton had lost their last three.
At least after the break there was a shot on target to lift the home crowd, who watched Virginia palm away Eze’s directed thump towards the top corner.
Calvert-Lewin responded, galloping goalwards from Clyne’s error with his ponytail undone and his hair blowing in the London breeze, but the outcome was a tame effort on target.
Danjuma’s rushed stab at goal was straight at an expectant Henderson, and then out of nowhere, VAR decided to make itself the star of this uninspiring spectacle.
Mark Halsey on Calvert Lewin red card
IT was an extremely harsh decision to send off Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Referee Chris Kavanagh had a great view of the incident and did not even give a free-kick initially.
The Everton striker’s foot was high with studs showing but the contact was minimal on the side of Nathaniel Clyne’s shin.
None of the players on either side reacted to the challenge.
I do not understand why VAR Craig Pawson recommended a pitchside review and I’m surprised Kavanagh did not stick with his original decision.
You can argue it was ‘reckless’ and worthy of a caution but it did not meet the criteria for ‘serious foul play’.
It did not ‘endanger the safety of an opponent with excessive force or brutality’.
Those challenges happen all the time and the slo-mo replays always make them appear worse than they are.
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See how the match unfolded below…
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
