Due to the fact that Manchester City, Coventry, and Chelsea had already advanced to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, the encounter that took place at Old Trafford during the quarter-finals of the competition gave an opportunity for both sides to secure a berth in the semi-finals.
In spite of the fact that United took an early lead thanks to a goal scored by Scott McTominay, Jurgen Klopp’s team immediately rallied with goals scored by Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah just before the halftime break.
A booking was given to Fernandes, the midfielder, after Salah scored the goal, and immediately after that, he was involved in a tackle on Dominik Szoboszlai at the opening of the second half.
Even though Fernandes committed a foul, he did not receive a second yellow card due to his actions.
Instead of intervening to advise that referee John Brooks reconsider his decision and show Fernandes a red card, the video assistant referee did not do so.
The fact that Fernandes was able to avoid being sent off was regarded as “fortunate” by Dixon, who was giving co-commentary for the game.
Dixon made a note of the fact that there were no Liverpool players in the vicinity of the referee when he was observing the incident.
He emphasized that Fernandes’ actions, despite the fact that they posed a potential foul, were commonplace throughout the game.
He emphasized that occurrences of this nature are normally investigated by the video assistant referee, which indicates that Fernandes was fortunate to avoid receiving a second yellow card.
Dixon voiced his conviction that if the incident had taken place somewhere else on the field and Fernandes had not already been booked, he would have been given a yellow card without any hesitation whatever the circumstances were.
In order to underline this point even further, he stated that the referee would have issued a yellow card in the event that a circumstance comparable to this one had occurred near the halfway line instead.
