#5 Referee’s inconsistency did not benefit St. Etienne
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Although United probably deserved the victory on the balance of play, St. Etienne were being given no favours by referee Pavel Kralovec, who made a number of dubious calls during the game. His decision to award the free-kick to Zlatan was debatable, as many felt that the Swede had thrown himself to the pitch under pressure from a St. Etienne player to meet a pass.
The away side would have felt hard done by, when they saw the resulting free-kick creep into the net.
Minutes later, Daley Blind appeared to show intent in tripping Jorginho inside the box after the latter had managed to win the ball from him. However, the Czech official did not point to the spot despite initially appearing to agree to appeals from the St. Etienne’s players.
The referee’s inconsistency was confirmed in the 87th minute, when he awarded Manchester United a very soft penalty after Ibrahimovic made the most of the contact from a St. Etienne defender behind him. St. Etienne will be feeling a sense of injustice as they look to overturn a three-goal deficit in the second leg at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichar
