Oliver Glasner, Crystal Palace manager, believes his side fell victim to Manchester United's home advantage, pointing to the controversial penalty, successfully converted by Bruno Fernandes, as a key factor in their 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford.
The decisive moment of the match occurred in the 54th minute when referee Chris Kavanagh awarded a penalty for a foul by Maxence Lacroix on Matheus Cunha. The infringement began outside the box, but the forward only went down inside the penalty area.
Initially, the referee only signaled for the penalty. However, after a four-minute VAR review and a visit to the monitor, Kavanagh ultimately showed a straight red card to the French center-back for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
For Glasner, the decision was excessively harsh on his player, who, ironically, had scored the goal that put Palace ahead in the first half. "The red card completely changed the game," stated the coach, who will now be without the defender for Thursday's trip to Tottenham.
The Palace manager elaborated on his perspective of the incident: "A penalty and a red card is a very severe decision, because the foul started outside the area and, normally, the foul should be called where it begins. Matheus Cunha was very clever to wait until he was inside the area to fall."
The Austrian, who is set to leave the Eagles at the end of the season, also revealed he spoke with the fourth official about the complexity of the analysis. "They had to check first if it was offside or not, then if it was a foul or not, where it started, and if it was a red card or not. These are three or four situations to evaluate, and that takes time, but it seems it was the wrong decision, so it doesn't get better if it takes less time. But we have to accept it," he lamented.
In his analysis, the coach suggested that the home factor might have influenced the decision. "It's not a penalty; perhaps he could have seen a red card for the foul outside the area. That's what can be discussed. Maybe it's a bit of the Old Trafford bonus," he concluded.
Following the incident, the Portuguese captain of the Red Devils equalized, and later, Benjamin Sesko, with a header, scored the goal that sealed the comeback and secured all three points for the home team, beating goalkeeper Dean Henderson.