Manchester United boss Michael Carrick said it was “baffling” that Harry Maguire was sent off and gave away a penalty but Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert escaped punishment for an “identical” challenge on Amad Diallo during their 2-2 draw.
Maguire’s late foul on Evanilson ultimately proved costly, with Junior Kroupi scoring the resulting spot-kick and United having to hang on with 10 men to take a point from their trip to the south coast.
A Bruno Fernandes penalty on the hour mark and James Hill own goal, either side of a fine finish from Ryan Christie, had given United a 2-1 lead before Maguire got his marching orders. But it was an incident just before that Christie goal which left Carrick and United captain Fernandes frustrated.
Amad latched onto a clever pass forward from Fernandes and cut into the box but went to ground when Truffert placed both hands on him. It was similar to Maguire’s subsequent foul, which, like Amad, spun Evanilson to the ground.
“We should have had another penalty,” Carrick told Sky Sports. “Obviously, if you get one, you must get the other.
“It’s pretty much identical for me, two-hand grab. Either way, [the ref] got one wrong, but to give one and not give the other, I can’t get my head around it. I think it’s crazy. It’s a bit baffling, really.
“Because of that, they score and then it’s chaos after that, really. We should have had another penalty and the game would have been totally different.”
Fernandes added: “We get a penalty against [us] where more or less it’s the same situation as Amad.
“One is rewarded as a penalty, the other one not. I know it’s difficult for the referee to give two penalties in the same game for the same team but what I don’t understand is why VAR doesn’t get involved in that situation.
“Either one is a penalty and the other one too or none of them is a penalty.”
However, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp took a different view.
“It would have been incredibly harsh,” he said. “You can see Truffert is being aggressive with him. He does sort of manhandle him a bit, but I just don’t think it’s enough for it to be a penalty.”
Carrick: We are in a good place
Reflecting on the bigger picture, with his team third in the Premier League and well-placed for Champions League qualification, Carrick said: “We’re in a good place. We’ve put ourselves in this position through some good work, good results and good performances.
“We could have had more tonight but it’s not the end of the world.
“We’ve made some improvements. There are things we can improve on, and we can get a lot better.
“I’m happy with the way things have gone, but we’re not satisfied. We definitely want more.”
