5 Controversial Red Cards in recent times

Referees in football are charged with making sure that 22 men going at each other at a frantic pace and with full-blooded challenges are somehow staying within the rules. More often than not they are successful in delivering the promises and maintain the fine line between aggression and recklessness.

A highly unappreciated job in general as their good work is considered to be just the procedure and errors are scrutinized to no end. They are human after all and sometimes they end up with decisions which are not only wrong but can be disastrous for teams in context of the match/tournament.

We take a look at 5 incidents in recent times where a player was given a direct red or a second yellow for innocuous challenges or no offense at all.

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#5 Luis Nani vs Real Madrid (2013)

Sir Alex's last UCL tie ended on a sour note

Cuneyt Cakir quickly became a pantomime villain for United fans all around the world when he waved a red card towards Nani in the UCL quarterfinal against Real Madrid. Nani went in with Arbeloa in a high-ish challenge where both the players were looking for the ball and had little to no intent to harm their opponent.

The repercussion of the decision was throwing the tie off balance and making it all about the referee when it could have been a true champions league classic for years to come.

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#4 Raheem Sterling vs Bournemouth (2017)

The

pile up

which led to the second yellow

Raheem Sterling had a few magical moments for Man City last season. One of these was when he scored a 97th minute winner for his side at the end of a tough away game at Bournemouth. Completely ecstatic with his contribution he jumped into the City fans celebrating a great victory with them.

Mike Dean took the less forgiving way of looking at the situation and brandished a second yellow which meant Raheem had to go off for celebrating a brilliant last minute winner.

#3 Eric Abidal vs Chelsea (2009)

Probably the most controversial UCL

semi final

ever

In a match where Barcelona got all the refereeing luck possible, they too weren't spared by referee Ovrebo's horror decisions. In the second half, Nicolas Anelka ran at the Barca defense and beat Abidal with utmost ease, gliding past him. A moment later he was down on the floor having tripped himself up.

The referee had missed it and assumed a foul from the defender warranting a red as he was the last man. Ovrebo hasn't been seen since, and rightly so.

#2 Juan Cuadrado vs Real Madrid (2017)

Juventus will still feel aggrieved about this

2018 wasn't the first time that Sergio Ramos was involved in an incident where an opposition winger with curly hair had to go off the pitch because of his antics. In the 2017 final, as Real were cruising to a record 12th UCL title Ramos went down under the slightest of touch from Cuadrado right under the nose of the assistant ref. The reaction was completely uncalled for and over the top, adding a bad taste to an otherwise imperious performance from Los Blancos.

#1 Kieran Gibbs vs Chelsea (2014)

The worst case of mistaken identity

It takes a special kind of bad luck to be sent off for an offence you were nowhere near involved in. Andre Marriner is a fairly reliable referee but when he sent off Kieran Gibbs instead of Oxlade-Chamberlain for handball on the line against Chelsea, he might have hit the lowest point of his career. Fans and commentators were equally shocked by this decision.