What Has Been Said Following Bournemouth vs Sunderland

Sunderland travelled to the South Coast on Saturday for the early kickoff against Bournemouth. The game ended 1-1; however, there was much controversy in the game, especially regarding an early penalty appeal that was turned down by the referee and VAR.

We take a look at what the managers and pundits had to say following Bournemouth vs Sunderland.

What Has Been Said Following Bournemouth vs Sunderland

Premier League Statement on Decision Not to Award a Penalty to Sunderland

After the game, the Premier League match centre released a statement regarding the controversial decision not to award Sunderland a penalty for what appeared to be a foul on Enzo Le Fee.  The statement said: “The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge by Jiménez on Le Fée was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed normal contact.”

Ex Referee on Penalty Appeal

Speaking on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, former Premier League referee Mike Dean criticised the decision: “If that is normal contact, we might as well go home. It’s just a penalty. It is not normal contact. It’s a penalty all day.”

Pundits Have Their Say

Speaking on TNT Sports, pundits Peter Crouch and Joe Cole said Sunderland had been unlucky not to have been given a penalty and that just after, a foul was given further up the field for something similar. Crouch said: “I think it was a shout – he leans into him, he’s [Le Fee] unlucky. There was an incident just after that in the middle of the pitch where he gave a foul. Both of the incidents look very similar to me; he leans with his leg and his shoulder and doesn’t get the ball.”
Cole continued: “Similar [incident moments later], that get given. You just want consistency from referees – it’s a terrible decision.”

Regis Le Bris Happy With Spirit

Following the game, Sunderland’s head coach said he was happy with parts of his team’s display but not they weren’t good enough to get another goal. He said: “This is a tough place, they are an intense, duel-driven, sprinting team. It was important to match this intensity, and we showed this character, resilience, togetherness.
“We had good periods with good quality. Probably not enough to score another goal, but happy about the team spirit especially.”

On the challenge by Tyler Adams on Granit Xhaka, Le Bris said: “It [Adams on Xhaka] was a foot-on-foot challenge, and that is always dangerous. Often in this league, when you have this kind of action, it is a red card. It wasn’t, even though it was really dangerous. There were a couple of situations like that where things were just on the edge for the integrity of the players. I think it is important to protect them, even if the intensity of the game was high. It was right on the edge today.”

Bournemouth Boss Eventually Happy With Tempo

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola was eventually happy with his side but admitted that their start cost them the goal they conceded. He said: “We paid for our slow start. They scored the first goal. After, we improved and in the second half were the closest to winning it.

“But we paid the price in terms of two points today in terms of how we started the game.” On Evanilson’s goal: “It’s a lovely cross, lovely finish – but for me it’s Ryan Christie who scores the goal. We need to take quickly these kind of free-kicks.

“We were losing a lot of time setting up in the first half, they were losing an incredible amount of time every free-kick, and if we don’t take it quickly the game becomes so boring, there’s no rhythm into the game. The decision to take it quickly, play and put tempo into the game, I’m very happy because of this.”