It wasn't a penalty despite the 'contact' being just outside the box. It simply was not a foul anyway. He made no effort to tackle, therefore it cannot be a foul. A Foul is misconduct and action he ref deems as unfair. There is no misconduct or anything unfair about it. There wasn't even a challenge.
The ref was fooled by the click heel trick. Firmino just felt slight contact, took a step into the box and clipped his own heels. He didn't know Lamela was nowhere near him, he's expecting him to be all over him.
- Law 12 Fouls and Misconduct
- Direct and indirect free kicks and penalty kicks can only be awarded for offences and infringements committed when the ball is in play. (vertonghen Incident)
Direct free kick
A direct free kick is awarded if a player commits any of the following offences against an opponent in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:
If an offence involves contact it is penalised by a direct free kick or penalty kick.
- charges
- jumps at
- kicks or attempts to kick
- pushes
- strikes or attempts to strike (including head-butt)
- tackles or challenges
- trips or attempts to trip
- Careless is when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is
- needed
- Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned
- Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off
There are so many other aspects of the game that could be discussed and put to a debate but people get stuck with this pointless penalty argument. Yest it was a penalty, in the heat of the moment and the lack of 1000000 camera angles and a replay option any HUMAN being would award a penalty for that.
People should be discussing the overall performance of the game. The fact how Dier did a pretty good job replacing Walker and managed the get a few pretty decent crosses into the box (one that led to the goal). How almost none of our players are capable to dribble past opponents consistently. Wanyama, Walker and Lamela are our top dribblers with a good success percentage. We have a backup keeper that would be first choice for the majority of the PL teams but a subs bench with almost no real threat or real tactical change potential.
But yes, lets keep looking at 8 frames from 20 angles and shout MATCHFIXING.
Posting these absurd slow-mo, zoomed in and cropped clips makes us look like the fools we laugh at from other teams.