John McGinn was told by referee Ilgiz Tantashev that he controversially denied Scotland a penalty against Morocco because the ball was "going out of play." The Aston Villa skipper was tripped by Neil El Aynaoui in the box, but the Uzbekistani whistler waved away his appeals and was backed up by VAR.
The spot kick could have taken Steve Clarke's side level in Boston and put the nation on the brink of reaching the World Cup knock-out stage. Clarke revealed that the players were "devastated" after a series of flashpoints went against Scotland as the AFCON champions claimed a narrow 1-0 win.
John's brother Stephen has now revealed that Tantashev offered the Tartan Army hero a madcap explanation for the call on the field. Speaking to BBC Sportsound, he said: "That referee was extremely frustrating, in terms of he was letting a lot of things go - which great, fair enough - and then was pulling back other things. He was quite inconsistent in the game.
"The John one, I thought at the time 'this is going to be the one, if this goes to VAR' - that was my gut feeling at the time, and having seen it back it's a penalty, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's a penalty.
"On the pitch, the referee told John that because the ball was going out of play, it wasn't a foul, and I am thinking, when has that ever been the case? In any action, whether it's fast or slow, when you take on the defender and he takes you out the ball is eventually going to run out of play. So, it doesn't make sense. He looked like the type of ref that wanted to referee the game - he didn't want the game re-refereed. He looked like that."
