McCoist and McInnes baffled by penalty incident in Rangers v Brondby as Aribo shines
Ally McCoist and Derek McInnes cannot understand why Rangers were not awarded a penalty in the second half of their 2-0 win over Brondby in the Europa League at Ibrox on Thursday night.
Leon Balogun and Kemar Roofe both scored in the first half to set the Gers on their way to their first win of the group stages but the lead could have been extended after the break.
Aribo was very clearly brought down by Sigurd Rosted inside the penalty area but despite a review by VAR, nothing was awarded.
When shown a replay of the penalty shout, McCoist told BT Sport 3 after the game: “I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws to try and find a season why that isn’t given, to be honest with you. It’s impossible.”
McInnes agreed with McCoist and also waxed lyrical about Aribo’s overall display.
“I’m scratching my head at that one,” said the ex-Aberdeen manager.
“It’s alright in the context of the game, Rangers won the game. It’s not important but it could have been.
“It’s a poor decision.
“I thought Aribo was terrific, I thought he carried the fight brilliantly.
“He held the ball up better than anybody, he pinned people, he brought people into play, he assisted for the goal and he was a constant threat.
“Aribo was the right pick for man of the match.”
McCoist responded by saying: “I agree, totally.”
Stonewall penalty
There’s simply no way that was not a penalty kick.
Aribo is very clearly brought down by the Brondby defender, who obviously made impact with the Rangers player as he mistimed the tackle he attempted.
It’s a ridiculous decision, especially when VAR is involved.
When it’s just a normal referee taking charge, we can understand sometimes why they miss certain incidents in games or make the wrong decisions.
But with VAR, there’s a chance and we expect to see a far more superior standard of refereeing in matches so that mistakes like that are rectified.
The fact that wasn’t deemed a foul by VAR or the on-field referee was made to watch the incident again on the pitchside monitor is farcical.
As McInnes says, we went on to win the game 2-0 but what if after that Brondby came back and scored twice?
Stuff like that simply cannot happen.
In other Rangers news, Richard Foster slammed this Gers ace despite the 2-0 win over the Danish side.