Gary Lineker initially disagrees over Everton v Aston Villa controversy, changes mind once he sees new footage on Match of the Day
Gary Lineker and Micah Richards discussed the penalty incident as Everton lost 2-0 loss against Aston Villa at Goodison Park on Saturday (25 February), where the BBC Match of the Day host appears to have changed his mind after watching the footage.
In the 63rd minute of the match, Idrissa Gueye tripped John McGinn in the box, and from the resulting penalty, Ollie Watkins gave Villa the lead, although it looked like a controversial decision.
Lineker suggested initially that there’s an “element of doubt” as to whether Gueye might have got a touch on the ball. However, after seeing close footage of the incident, it became clear that he touched McGinns’ knee and the decision given was correct.
“The penalty decision. There is an element of doubt whether he might have got a touch on the ball, what do you think?,” said Lineker on Match of the Day (25 February, 1hr 07min onwards).
“I thought he got the ball on the first angle here. To my eyes, when I first saw it, he definitely got a touch. On the second angle [the clip shown], he just misses the ball,” said Richards.
“But the VAR, I don’t know, does he?,” Lineker added.
“The third angle is conclusive [another footage shown], it’s knee on knee. You see that he misses the ball, and so, it’s a correct decision,” Richards continued.
“Ah, yes,” responded Lineker.
Bad loss
The Toffees really played well against Villa and they were the better team before Watkins scored the goal.
Under Frank Lampard, we saw that the Toffees do not seem to find a way to come back into the game once they concede a goal. We saw a similar situation here, and the Toffees went on to concede another goal.
In the first half, the home side really dominated and they created some very good opportunities. Tyrone Sings even made a goal-line clearance to deny an effort from Iwobi.
Amadou Onana was superb and nearly scored a goal with a header, which was brilliantly saved by Emi Martinez.
Overall, Dyche should be very happy with the effort. But in the end, the Toffees waste a glorious opportunity to win a game at home. They have really poor on their roads, and they must take points from their fixtures at Goodison.
With this defeat, Everton have now moved to the drop zone, sitting 18th in the table, with just 21 points.