Rangers were left aggrieved after the failure to award a penalty for a shirt pull on Cyriel Dessers in the Europa League clash against Athletic Bilbao.
The decision not to award Rangers a penalty for a shirt pull on Cyriel Dessers during Thursday night’s Europa League quarter-final defeat to Athletic Bilbao has been deemed “difficult to understand”, according to a top former referee.
Goals in either half from Oihan Sancet and Nico Williams secured a 2-0 second-leg win for Athletic Bilbao at San Mames, sending Rangers out of the competition and firing the LaLiga giants into the semi-finals of the Europa League in the process. However, in the aftermath of the clash, much of the discussion centred around denying the away a side a penalty in the 16th minute of the game.
Rangers were left aggrieved when referee Irfan Peljto was not called to his pitchside monitor by VAR official Paul van Boekel when Dessers had his shirt pulled – and ultimately ripped – in the box by Bilbao centre-back Dani Vivian when trying to latch on to a through ball.
