Gary O’Neil had no complaints with Joao Gomes’ red card at Brentford but he felt the Bees should have had two players sent off.
A rocket from Tommy Doyle kept Wolves in the FA Cup despite playing with 10 men for 81 minutes at Brentford.
They were trailing to Neal Maupay’s first-half goal when Doyle struck from 20 yards to secure a 1-1 draw.
In a niggly encounter, Gomes was given his marching orders for chopping down Bees captain Christian Norgaard.
But O’Neil pointed to a similar challenge from Mikkel Damsgaard on Doyle which went unpunished.
The Wolves boss also felt Keane Lewis-Potter should have been sent off for grabbing Nelson Semedo in a stoppage-time melee.
“Obviously I know Joao very well. It would look bad slowed down, it’s a nasty place to be kicked with the studs and I hope Norgaard is OK,” said O’Neil.
“But I know Joao has not meant for it to land like that. He’s a bit late. I’ve got no real complaints, it could have been a yellow, it could have been a red.
“But the tackle on Tommy Doyle was equally as bad, a straight leg on Tommy. And Lewis-Potter grabbing Semedo’s throat should have been a red card.
“I can’t believe VAR thought it wasn’t. Now we’ll miss one of our best midfielders for three games and one of our rivals get to keep two of theirs.”
Nevertheless, O’Neil hailed his players for battling back to secure a replay.
“I’m really pleased with performance of the players,” he added. “We played 90-odd minutes with 10 men, with the stoppage time at the end of each half.
“Away from home, going 1-0 down, it would have been easy for the players to let this one go. There was none of that. Everyone gave absolutely everything.”
Bees boss Thomas Frank felt his side had let a chance to progress at the first time of asking slip through their grasp.
“We can only blame ourselves today, there was a lack of quality all over the pitch,” he said.
“Sometimes you can’t always hit a top performance. Sometimes it’s not easy to play 11 against 10. It’s not a miracle by Wolves, although credit to them. But especially after being 1-0 we really should win the game.”
Frank had said before the match that he does not believe there should be replays in the FA Cup.
He added: “This is the worst outcome, in every aspect. I don’t understand why we have a replay.
“I simply don’t understand why no one in the football world has changed this. They need to take some more clever decisions.”
Ancelotti lauds Real Madrid goalscorer Vinicius after first-leg double
Carlo Ancelotti believes Vinicius Junior is constantly developing his attacking output, after the Real Madrid forward delivered again in the Champions League.
Vinicius scored twice as Madrid drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday.
Those strikes took Vinicius to 31 goal involvements (16 goals, 15 assists) in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, which is more than any other player in the competition in the same time period.
Vinicius' opener came when he cut inside and latched onto an exceptional pass from Toni Kroos, and Ancelotti pointed out how the Brazil international is beginning to change how he attacks.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Ancelotti said: "Vinicius is starting to understand how important it is for him to move inside the pitch and not only close to the line.
"He's learned really well how to move. It was a fantastic pass from Kroos but a fantastic run from Vinicius."
Reflecting on his team's performance, Ancelotti said: "It was an interesting game, an open game of course – as it has to be for a semi-final. I think we could play better, I don’t think we played our best and we had problems in the first half.
"We started to put pressure on in the second half to level the game – it was much better.
"We are comfortable with a low block but we didn’t play with intensity. With a low block you have to have intensity, you have to win duels, second balls. We were too low. We tried to change something.
"The game was difficult at 2-1 down, but then we had the energy and character to equalise – the second part of the second half was really good."
Al Ittihad 1-2 Al Hilal: Holders into King's Cup final
Al Hilal overcame Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's red card as Saud Abdulhamid's late goal sealed a 2-1 victory over Al Ittihad in the King's Cup semi-finals.
Without Karim Benzema, Al Ittihad ultimately lacked the firepower to make their numerical advantage count in Tuesday's clash.
Former Lazio midfielder, who joined Al Hilal as part of their spending spree last year, received a straight red card in the 42nd minute.
Al Ittihad's Abderrazzaq Hamed-Allah cancelled out Micheal's opener, but Abdulhamid popped up with the winner in the 81st minute.
Al Hilal are 10-time King's Cup winners, having won their 10th title last season.
The Saudi Pro League leaders, who are still without the injured Neymar, will now face either Al Khaleej or Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr in the final at the end of May.
Data Debrief: Malcom in the middle
Al Hilal might be missing their star Brazilian Neymar, but his compatriot Malcom is delivering when it comes to playmaking.
The former Zenit attacker set up both of Al Hilal's goals, creating three chances in total and registering a pass accuracy of 92.6 per cent, better than any of his team-mates.
Former Spain boss Del Bosque to oversee RFEF
Former Spain boss Vicente del Bosque will oversee a new committee supervising the RFEF.
Spain, which is due to be one of six host countries for the 2030 World Cup, announced the creation of a special committee until the federation holds elections to replace Luis Rubiales.
That is despite Pedro Rocha having this week been appointed as Rubiales' replacement, though he himself is under investigation amid a corruption probe.
Rubiales was dismissed following his unsolicited kiss on Jenni Hermoso during the Women's World Cup trophy ceremony in 2023.
The federation's former president was then arrested in early April as part of a corruption investigation.
Del Bosque led Spain to three consecutive trophies, winning the European Championships in 2008 and 2012, while also leading the team to their first World Cup success in 2010.
Prior to his time with the national team, he also won two Champions Leagues and two LaLiga titles while in charge of Real Madrid, where he made over 400 appearances as a player.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
