Scotland denied ‘very clear penalty’ against Morocco in World Cup defeat

Scotland suffered a 1-0 defeat in their Group C fixture against Morocco; however, it was not without controversy, as they were denied a ‘very clear penalty’ in the second half, according to a former referee.

The North African nation secured a win to move them to the top of the group, at least for a few hours, as Ismael Saibari struck the decisive goal early in the match.

Morocco made history with the victory against Scotland as they moved closer to topping the group to secure the best seeding for the next stage of the World Cup.

Steve Clarke’s side struggled to break down their opposition, as while they had six attempts at goal, not one of them were on target.

While the stats will indicate that they deserved to suffer defeat, Scotland will feel hard done by for not having been awarded a penalty as they piled the pressure on the Moroccans late on in the match.

Scott McTominay went down in the area under pressure from Neil El Aynaoui, with the Moroccan appearing to make contact with the lower leg of the Scot.

Ilgiz Tantashev, the referee for the clash, was not interested in the incident, waving away the Scottish protests with the VAR team not intervening to indicate that he had not made a mistake.

However, ex-referee Christina Unkel stated that she believed it was a foul post-match on the ITV coverage.

She 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.

"We saw that second replay there; that was exactly what I was looking for. There was no contact on the ball whatsoever.

“There is a trip up coming from behind that does contact his left lower leg. For this, I do think this is a missed incident for VAR to not recommend that for a penalty and the referee to not make the decision on the field for a penalty.

"I know this referee is calling a more physical game, but this is a very clear penalty."

Duncan Ferguson was in agreement with Unkel as he said: “It was a penalty. There was a big touch, and McTominay goes down.”

Meanwhile, Roy Keane had a differing opinion as he said: “I don't think it is a penalty, simple as that.

"I think he is looking to go down."

The former Manchester United captain appeared to be the only pundit across the British Isles coverage, as the panel in the RTE studio and Keane’s compatriots, Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt, and Stephen Kelly, all stated that it should have been a penalty.