Scott McTominay was wrongly denied a penalty award in their vital World Cup clash with Morocco, according to ITV's leading VAR expert. The broadcaster's referee specialist Christine Unkel was aghast after Uzbekistan whistler Ilgiz Tantashev waved away the Napoli superstar's fraught appeals for a spot kick after he was caught by Neil El Aynaoui with a clumsy tackle inside the box.
Tantashev called an uncompromising game from start to finish, including a penalty shout from John McGinn, and dismissed countless appeals during the crunch Group C clash in Boston which triggered Morocco to leapfrog Scotland in the hunt to automatically exit the group. Unkel was left shocked after the man in the middle didn't call it and VAR then didn't recommend the referee head to his monitor.
Speaking on ITV, Unkel said: "The first thing you are looking for as a VAR is if there is any touch on that ball and the answer is no. You can see that in the second replay, that is exactly what I was looking for, and you can see there is no touch whatsoever. There is a trip-up coming from behind, contact to the left lower. I do think this is a missed incident from the VAR team, as well as the referee not to make the decision of penalty on the field. This referee is calling a more physical game but this looks very clear."
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