Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã isn’t very happy with the refereeing for the Europa League match between Sporting and Arsenal this Thursday.
With a headline saying ‘referee plots Sporting’, they claim that Damir Skomina had a big part in the Gunners’ 1-0 win in Lisbon.
They write that ‘the Lions dominated the first half’, and couldn’t keep their momentum just because of the referee.
The first complaint is because he didn’t send Sokratis Papastathopoulos off in a play where he held a Sporting player who would be in a one versus one against Bernd Leno.
Six minutes later, it’s said that he ignored Stephan Lichtsteiner pulling Nani, and these two plays ‘could have changed the match’s destiny’.
Correio da Manhã adds they can’t understand why VAR isn’t being used in the Champions League, and claim that this defeat shouldn’t take confidence away from Sporting.
Regarding the defeat, they also blame Sporting’s physical condition and Sebastian Coates’ mistake.
Not much credit from them to Arsenal then.
