Why Laurent Koscielny’s red card for Arsenal in Bayern Munich defeat was the RIGHT decision – Mirror.co.uk

Arsene Wenger felt that the red card delivered to Laurent Koscielny was game-changing moment.

It was. But it was right.

The Frenchman was sent off for the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity in the 53rd minute of Arsenal's second leg tie with Bayern Munich with the Gunners leading 1-0.

Greek referee Tasos Sidiropoulos - who was taking charge of his first-ever Champions League knockout game - originally handed a yellow card to Koscielny.

With the game having not restarted, the fifth official behind the goal corrected the decision and told Sidiropoulos to brandish red.

At the start of this season, the law regarding the denial of a goalscoring opportunity changed, so that if the offence occurred inside the penalty area, it would be a yellow card, rather than red.

That is apart from when it is an 'upper body' offence.

The law describe these as "holding, pulling or pushing" fouls, or one where "the offending player foes not attempt to play the ball or there is no possibility for the player making the challenge to play the ball".

As Koscielny's foul was one of the above mentioned 'upper body' offences, it was correct decision in law to send off Koscielny.

Mirror Football columnist Robbie Savage tweeted: "Correct decision red card, in my opinion no genuine attempt to play the ball a push in the back prevented clear goal scoring opportunity."

Former World Cup final and Premier League referee Howard Webb quickly responded with "Correct interpretation."

Wenger insisted that the incident was game-changing. It certainly was.

Over the two legs, with Koscielny on the pitch, Arsenal would have been leading 2-1. Without him... well, you do the maths.

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Why Laurent Koscielny's red card for Arsenal in Bayern Munich defeat was the RIGHT decision - Mirror.co.uk

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