Most people turned to congratulate Chelsea for the fascinating game, but indeed Manchester City has a few advantages over key decisions. The most apparent controversies were the soft penalty awarded again, and no foul for the handball. Sadly if the standard of refereeing is normal, Chelsea should deserve a win.
I dont see any issue with the refereeing in this match. It could be argued that the penalty was soft, but from the perspective of a Chelsea fan I genuinely think the VAR had a good process for that one.
The on field decision was penalty, because that was genuinely what it looked like from a referees perspective. Haaland got ahead of Cucurella so Cucurella pulled him down.
Looking at the replays, yes, they both had a hold of each other, but cucurella didn’t let go. From the angle that we had it looks like Cucurella panics after Haaland gets ahead of him and just doesn’t let go, and Haaland makes a meal out of the situation. In that position its either Cucurella gets flamed for losing his man (if Haaland gets to the ball and scores) or he manages to at least slow him down enough to allow Silva an easy clearance without Haaland trying to jump ahead.
It wasn’t a good process because they didn’t judge the whole thing. The replays they seemed to use only showed the end of the incident, when cucarella undoubtedly pulled Haaland down. They did not show the start - They both had hold of each other. Haaland then clearly pulls cucarella back so that he can get in front of him. Cucarella doesn’t let go and bundles him over. It’s six of one, Haaland foul of the other.