'I can't understand': Bayer Leverkusen star rages after last night's game as Malick Thiaw escapes red card
On reflection, Newcastle United were pretty lucky overall last night. While the last-minute equaliser for Bayer Leverkusen was a sickener, a draw was probably a fair result on the night.
Things could have been much, much worse for Newcastle had the referee and VAR not been in such a good mood, though.
Malick Thiaw brought down Patrik Schick as he was bearing down on goal. Initially, it looked to be a penalty, and as such, Thiaw was handed a yellow card as a player can't be sent off for being the last man if they give away a penalty under the double jeopardy rule.
VAR confirmed that the contact started outside of the area, and the penalty was downgraded to a free-kick, which would normally result in a red card, but with the yellow having already been brandished, the ref stuck by that decision rather than upgrading it to a red. We don't know how we got away with it, but we did.
Robert Andrich sounds like he's ready to charge Malick Thiaw with attempted murder
It may have just been our biased eyes, but the actual contact looked minimal to us; however, the Leverkusen players didn't see it that way. Indeed, Robert Andrich was raging after the game, going on as if Thiaw had sliced up Schick with a knife.
Speaking to reporters (via The Chronicle), the man initially credited with Leverkusen's opener before it was given as an own goal certainly didn't hold back.
"I have rarely seen such a fatal mistake. It should have been either a free kick and a red card or a penalty and a yellow card. Looking at his Achilles tendon, I can't understand how he didn't get a red card."
Malick Thiaw had a rare off-night for Newcastle.
We definitely feel like Newcastle got away with one, and had Thiaw been sent off, we don't see a way in which we'd have won that game, or even got the draw that we did.
That being said, Andrich needs to calm down a bit. It was two players clipping heels, mate, chill out.
It wasn't Thiaw's best performance for the Magpies last night. That incident seemed to knock his confidence somewhat, but he did come back into the game and even had a couple of good chances to score. Hopefully, he can shake this one off and be back to his usual self on Sunday.
