David Moyes has criticised the decision not to award West Ham a penalty deep into stoppage time in their 1-0 defeat to Freiburg and believes the referee ignored a clear handball.
The Hammers had beaten the Bundesliga outfit both home and away in the group stages of this season’s Europa League before being pitted against each other yet again in the last 16.
They had been on top in Thursday night’s contest and missed a number of chances, with Jarrod Bowen seeing one particularly good effort brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Noah Atubolu.
After seemingly being content to take a goalless draw back to east London for the return leg, they were stung in the 81st minute when Michael Gregoritsch tapped in Roland Sallai’s mis-hit shot.
West Ham exerted late pressure and thought they had won a penalty deep into injury time when referee Alejandro Hernandez was referred to the pitch-side monitor by the VAR.
Despite studying multiple angles of the ball clearly hitting Noah Weisshaupt’s outstretched hand – which appeared to be in an unnatural position – Hernandez decided to stick with the on-field decision and waved away the penalty appeals.
Moyes and his players were furious at the time and the West Ham boss was still annoyed with the decision afterwards, feeling that it was a textbook example of the type of handballs that are routinely punished in Europe.
Asked about the incident, Moyes told TNT Sports: ‘I thought at the time his arm was above his head. I couldn’t see exactly how the incident happened but I’ve had a good chance to have a look at it and I believe it’s a penalty kick.
‘I think in Europe they nearly give all the handballs in Europe. I don’t believe it’s the right way to go about it, but I think that’s the way UEFA work. And because of that I think most times I would see that be given as a penalty kick.
‘So I find it very difficult to see why not and it was harsh on us. But that’s it, it didn’t go for us tonight.’
Asked how the referee explained the decision, Moyes continued: ‘Well he tried to explain it as well as he could, I couldn’t quite understand exactly.
‘I think Tomas Soucek kicks it up onto his arm. I think when you’ve got your two arms above your head now it’s nearly always given because those arms are not in a natural position.
‘I think somebody has tried to claim that there was a push, well if there was a push then he should have restarted the game with a free-kick if that was the case and he didn’t do that.
‘So to say that is the case is not correct. If anything I think technically the player who went to clear it probably made a bit of a mess of it and that should probably be punished if he kicked it onto his own arm.
‘But, hey, I don’t know. So football sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. We didn’t get it today.’
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