Jamie Carragher has condemned the behaviour of Bruno Fernandes following the incident that led to Phil Foden being sent off in the Manchester derby.
The Manchester City midfielder was shown a straight red card after aiming a kick at the midriff of Fernandes, who had left Foden on the ground following a coming together by the touchline. The Manchester United captain then sent his foot into the small of Foden's back, sparking the violent reaction which curtailed his involvement in the game.
Carragher's criticism
Erling Haaland went on to win the game for City following a highly dubious VAR intervention which, along with Foden's red card, became one of the major talking points from the derby.
Fernandes escaped punishment for his part in the clash with Foden and Carragher has now questioned the Portugal international for the manner of his reaction after the 'kick'.
“What I would say is two yellows [cards] would have been fine. But I was really disappointed with Bruno Fernandes,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football.
“There’s a lot of things in football that we like or we don’t like. My big one that I really don’t like is people going down, pretending they’re hurt. But doing that…I can’t have it.
“I know there will be Manchester United fans watching this saying: “Oh it’s because he’s a Manchester United player, it’s because he’s a foreign player”. On this show about five or six years ago Harry Kane did the same in a game between Tottenham and Everton and I said the same, I can’t accept it. I’m not having the reaction from Bruno there, it was a brush from his foot.”
Keane's view
Roy Keane echoed similar sentiments when he dissected the incident at half-time of Sunday's game on Sky Sports.
“Foden gets up and reacts obviously so he's now sent off. The strange thing is, if you look at it, so Bruno catches him, gives the foul away and gives him a little kick. Foden is sent off and I'm guessing it's classed as violent conduct.
“To me, Bruno is the one who's violent here. I have to call it out. I called Kyle Walker out a few years ago when he went down with a headbutt. Listen, we see violence, I suppose, in a different way. But I don't think that's a red card for Foden.”
