‘Deserved the win’ – Manchester United boss coy on big referee calls in Newcastle United draw
Erik ten Hag felt his Manchester United side deserved three points as they were held to a goalless draw by Newcastle United at Old Trafford.
After a positive first half from Newcastle, Man United came out strong in the second half and found the net twice within five minutes of the restart through Cristiano Ronaldo – but neither ‘goal’ was given.
The first was disallowed for a clear offside by Ronaldo and the second came just moments after as Newcastle prepared to take the resulting free-kick.
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Hide AdMagpies defender Fabian Schar tapped the ball back for goalkeeper Nick Pope to take the free-kick only for Ronaldo to slyly intercept and shoot into the net.
Ronaldo was shown a yellow card by referee Craig Pawson for his cheeky effort as Pope eventually took the free-kick.
The Manchester United boss made his feelings clear to the officials at full-time but refrained from giving much away in his post match press conference.
"I don't have a comment, everyone has seen it,” ten Hag said. "As I said, I shared that with [the officials]. Everyone has seen what happened today on the pitch, so I don't have a comment.
"As I said, I share [my views] with them. You can try, eh? Everyone has seen the game. You have to judge the performance from the teams and from the refs, not me."
There were also some big penalty shouts for both sides during the game with Callum Wilson being chopped down by Raphael Varane early on but nothing was given. Varane also escaped punishment for pulling Dan Burn’s shirt inside the penalty area.
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Hide AdAt the other end, Kieran Trippier clipped Ronaldo and Sean Longstaff barged into Jadon Sancho but neither was penalised.
When quizzed on the lack of penalty decisions, Ten Hag reiterated: "I don't have a comment on the ref's performance.”
He added: “The performance was good, a clean sheet, we pressed well, we controlled the game and in stages we were good on the ball - especially in the second half.
"Then, we dictated the game and in the end we could - we should - have scored the winning goal. One from Fred, and then [Marcus] Rashford had to score. In the end we could have got the win, we deserved the win.”