John McGinn was adamant that he should have been awarded a penalty in Scotland’s 1-0 defeat to Morocco at the World Cup. The midfielder was taken down in the box after knocking the ball past Neil El Aynaoui, with clear contact made. Referee Ilgiz Tantashev waved away McGinn’s protests, while VAR did not send him to the pitchside monitor to review the decision.
Early Setback for Scotland
Ismael Saibari's opener inside 70 seconds put Scotland on the back foot from the outset, but Steve Clarke’s side were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty when McGinn went down in the 49th minute. The Aston Villa midfielder told BBC: "I think we could have been helped at times by the ref; 50/50 challenges, decisions. No problem with allowing things to flow, but it has to be consistent across both teams."
"Sometimes that goes for you, goes against you. I think if we got a couple of those penalty decisions for us I don't think VAR intervene, definitely not."
McGinn's Perspective on the Incident
On his own penalty incident and appeal, he added: "Out the corner of my eye I can see him charging in. If you get first contact to the ball, he's taking you out. And he took me out on the side. It's a penalty kick for me."
"Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. If it's given on the field there's no chance it's overturned. I think Morocco have got away with one there."
McFadden's Analysis
Former Scotland international James McFadden said: "You can see how it was going to play out. John McGinn was going to get there first and then try to go forward, and if there is contact he will go down. I thought that there was contact and it was a penalty. I’m amazed that the referee wasn’t even called to the monitor to see it again."
"It was just a normal John McGinn thing, first of all, but if you are an attacker, you know that if you get there first, sometimes it’s a guaranteed contact, which I think is. It should have been a penalty kick."
