Philippe Clement said Hibs SHOULDN’T have had a penalty at Ibrox in an astonishing post-match rant.
The Rangers boss watched his side earn a 1-0 victory thanks to Tom Lawrence’s screamer, but he had Jack Butland to thank after the keeper denied Mykola Kukharevych from 12 yards in the first half. That was given after the Ukrainian striker’s shot hit John Souttar’s arm, the penalty initially not given by Nick Walsh, before VAR Kevin Clancy called him over for a review. The pundits unanimously agreed it WAS a penalty and the Sky Sports panel even said it was one no-one was likely to disagree with.
And then they went to Clement, who proved them all wrong. The irked Ibrox boss was expected to give a muted interview after a reasonably straightforward win, but instead unloaded on the decision to point to the spot. In an animated interview, in which he physically gestured to show why it shouldn’t have been a penalty, he said: “My question is ‘why is that a penalty?’
“You have a player who puts his leg up to go to the ball, so he’s wide. At that moment, he sees the other player make contact, so he makes himself smaller to put his arm in front of him. And then the ball touches him, and his arm goes up.
“In that short distance, I’ve seen this situation in the last couple of weeks, where people have had their arm out of their body, and there was no penalty. It was discussed before the season not to give those easy penalties from short distance in those moments. For me, it’s not a penalty.”
When Sky’s Luke Shanley pointed out his elbow was away from his body, Clement went on: “Of course, but he cannot put his elbow against his body when you go with your leg up. You cannot put your arm somewhere in your body. He makes himself smaller (to get out the way). As a player, you cannot do more. It’s from one meter or one-and-a-half meters that the ball comes at him. So no, it was really clear in the discussions between the managers and the referee department that these decisions were not to be penalties.
“So yeah, I expect a conclusion to be made during the week. But it can happen, it’s human decisions in the moment.”