Tottenham stars forced to remind referee to send off Eintracht Frankfurt defender after he forgets he is on yellow card
TOTTENHAM players were forced to remind the referee to send off Eintracht Frankfurt defender Tuta during their 3-2 Champions League victory on Wednesday night.
The German side were feeling the pace of the contest on the hour mark as Spurs – already leading 3-1 – charged at the visitors’ backline before Tuta brought down Son Heung-min.
Tuta was booked for a second time in three minutes but the ref initially did not realiseRex
Twitter – talkSPORTSpurs players urged the ref to send the defender off after he appeared to have forgotten the first caution[/caption]
The referee eventually gave Tuta his marching orders following a lengthy delayRex
And the 23-year-old Brazilian swiftly went into official Carlos del Cerro Grande’s book.
Just two minutes later, Tuta cynically took Son down again, grabbing his shirt and pulling him to the ground.
The referee came marching over and handed the centre-back a second yellow card… but the red did not follow.
Spurs players Rodrigo Bentancur and Emerson Royal were seen remonstrating with the Spaniard in charge of the game, telling him Tuta had already been booked just moments earlier.
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After a lengthy period of waiting, the ref then eventually pulled out the red card to give the Frankfurt man his marching orders.
Reacting to the incident, one social media user said: “This ref was out of his depth tonight like a rabbit in the headlights i felt sorry for him.”
While a second slammed the ref for forgetting it was Tuta’s second yellow, adding: “A few minutes after booking him for the first time .”
Despite being 3-1 up and enjoying a man advantage for the final half hour, Spurs endured a nervy final few minutes against Frankfurt.
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Faride Alidou pulled one back with a header from a corner to reduce the deficit after Daichi Kamada’s early strike was cancelled out by a brace from Son and a Harry Kane penalty.
Frankfurt pushed for an unlikely equaliser in the final moments, before Tottenham broke and Bryan Gil won the home side a penalty.
Kane stepped up to put the game to bed but uncharacteristically blazed his spot kick over the crossbar.
It ultimately proved irrelevant, though, as Spurs held on to go top of their Champions League group with two rounds of fixtures remaining.
