Football
ESPN staff 7y

Kyle Walker's push on Raheem Sterling 'not a penalty' - Spurs' Pochettino

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said he didn't believe Kyle Walker did anything wrong after the Spurs midfielder appeared to push Manchester City's Raheem Sterling in the box in Saturday's 2-2 draw.

City were leading 2-1 in the second half when Sterling raced in on goal before Walker made contact from behind and the forward could only manage a soft shot that Hugo Lloris easily caught.

Spurs went on to equalise through Son Heung-Min's goal a minute later, but Pochettino accepted Andre Marriner's decision not to award a penalty on the Walker incident.

"For me it was not a penalty," he told the BBC. "That is England, and you know it is the same if we complain Leroy Sane hand-balled for the first goal. I thought it was handball, but it's difficult for the referee.

"In the game there are lots of pushes in England that aren't a foul and it must be the same inside and outside the box."

Walker said he was trying to do anything he could to prevent Sterling from scoring.

"I wasn't really getting it otherwise," he told BT Sport. "I was just trying to put him off as much as possible.

"Hugo put him off as well and made the save and we hung on for the draw, which I think we deserved."

However, Man City boss Pep Guardiola, who was furious on the sideline after the incident, refused to discuss the incident, objecting when asked about the play on the BBC after the match.

"The first question is about the referee? This is the BBC, you are prestigious, you should talk about the football not the referee," Guardiola said.

But told by BT that Walker had admitted he may have pushed Sterling, Guardiola said: "In this country you appreciate honesty. Thank you to Walker for being honest."

Former Premier League referee Howard Webb said the incident is a clear case for more technology being brought into football to help officials with penalty decisions.

"You will see the push incident on Sterling and see that it should have been a penalty and red card," Webb said on BT. "But trying to put myself in his [Marriner's] shoes, it was a quick break and he was some distance away.

"He's probably not expecting a push from Kyle Walker, he's expecting a trip or last-ditch tackle. Maybe he doesn't really see from behind? The assistant should see it.

"Then he's got to make a judgement -- how much has that impacted on Sterling? He's still got his shot away and makes a good connection with the ball but you've got to make the link about how much that has affected him.

"Maybe again it's another case for some form of technology to come in so we can go back to Andre in that situation and say 'stop the game, that's a penalty and a red card.' ...

"It's clearly a strong push that affects Sterling's chance to get a shot away and the video referee would have come back and said 'give the penalty, send him off' and Man City go on at 3-1."

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