A classic orange card, for me. With this incident and the Brentford swinging arm, are we starting to see a slightly different side of Pedro, or has it always been there but not quite as obviously on show?
Having seen it on the club's highlights only my gut instinct is reckless and endangering an opponent red card. But I understand why the ref gave a yellow and VAR didn't over rule it as that is a subjective decision, violent conduct it is not.
I’m clearly in the minority but I think that’s just a foul. Assuming that his ‘intentions’ were to genuinely get the ball, he realises he’s not getting to it first and turns his body to minimise the damage done to the keeper.
Overzealous for sure and a foul, but can’t see the argument for a red card at all.
Yellow all day long for me. He had every right to go for the ball, was going flat out and can't stop on a blade of grass so there's going to be some collision, however how he turned it into a shoulder barge deserved the yellow. If he'd met it like Walton with his hands raised to ward off full body collision I'd have said it's just a coming together.
Red I'm afraid. But the ref chickened out by giving a yellow thus putting the onus on VAR, who just agreed with the on pitch decision.
Challenge like that on the Albion keeper we would be screaming for a red.
I thought whilst watching it at the ground that there was a poor underhit backpass by the Ipswich defender and Pedro had every right to go for it and that both his and the keeper's momentum was always likely to result in a collision as both went for the ball.
Pedro then realised that he probably isn't getting there first or they will get there at the same time and it would be a heavy hit so tried to stop but was going to fast to be able to stop and avoid any collision so he's probably tried to minimise the collision and likely jumped to reduce the risk of injury to himself (aka taking action to protect himself such as trying to avoid studs getting caught in the turf when contact is made & lessen the impact on himself when as he knew he was about to get hit) rather than intending to cause injury to the keeper. (Which is probably what VAR and the ref decided happened too and why neither decided it was a red card offense)
At the time i thought it was a harsh booking (both players committed to try to win the ball and then one tried to stop but couldn't so tried to minimise it) but can see why a yellow was given but I didn't and still don't see it as a red card offense, but it's probably one of those where if it had been given by the ref, VAR wouldn't have overturned it either. (I suspect if a red was given, a lot would be calling it harsh, jusging that he was entitled to go for it due to the poor backpass and it was a natural coming together of 2 committed players trying to get on the end of it first)
I said on the match thread, it's bizarre that in football that's open to interpretation, yet rugby, which is clearly more physical, would see Pedro sent off.
He makes contact with Walton's head, with his shoulder. That should be a red all day long. I'm amazed with all the concussion rules brought in, they haven't done the same as rugby, with the shoulder to head challenge.
When asked PGMOL why this was not deemed a late challenge out of control that endangered an opponent (which in their handbook is a red card whether deliberate or not) they said “because in the context of football incidents like this are different.”
In my view it is a yellow and correct decision, i would have said the same if happened to Bart. He has a right to challenge for the ball as he is expecting the kick away. Pedro does take evasive action and controls his limbs and head. However it is a brusque challenge, and the effect of it is worthy of a yellow.
The chat about this is odd. Ipswich are not complaining about it, McKenna said pretty much the above.
In his defence, I thought he jumped up to block what he anticipated was a standard keeper hoof down the pitch and Walton instead knocked it to his side on the deck which made it look like JP he had just played the man.
Having said that, I did have my heart in my mouth while the ref was mulling over what to do.