Ally McCoist argued with Rangers fans over Antwerp first-leg penalty
Ally McCoist admits he was arguing with Rangers fans over the controversial penalty Royal Antwerp were awarded in the first leg of their Europa League round of 32 tie.
Lior Refaelov won Antwerp a penalty in the first half of their 4-3 defeat to the Gers in Belgium after the most minimal bit of contact from Steven Davis.
While Davis did touch the back of Refaelov’s ankle, the Antwerp player threw himself to the ground in embarrassing fashion, almost a second after the contact.
Speaking ahead of the second leg at Ibrox on Thursday night, McCoist told BT Sport 3 that he was at odds with Gers fans over the incident.
He said: “Absolutely. I was arguing with Rangers supporters during the night. Some of them said there was a connection and it was a penalty.
“My opinion hasn’t changed. I think he went down and conned the referee. There was not enough in the challenge to go down.”
‘It was one of those…’
It seems like a long time ago since that penalty incident in the first leg.
We’ve seen countless goals since and on Thursday night, Rangers secured their place in the next round of the Europa League by beating Antwerp 5-2 at Ibrox. An aggregate result of 9-5 was ridiculous.
There were plenty of penalties in the two legs too with Borna Barisic scoring two in the first and once in the second before Cedric Itten also netted one in Ibrox.
In Belgium, Refaelov’s penalty was definitely the most contentious.
Davis made contact and with VAR in operation, you simply cannot do that.
With how the game is played nowadays, that is a penalty because referees for some reason reward simulation as long as there’s contact.
It’s ruining the game and referees need to come together and stamp it out.
We hate to see stuff like that in the game because it’s cheating. There are no ifs and buts about it.
In other Rangers news, John Hartson made a big claim about the Gers after Neil Lennon quit Celtic.