JOAO ABOUT THAT
Brighton 0 Brentford 0: Premier League release statement after Joao Pedro escapes red card despite elbow
Joao Pedro and Brighton may have found themselves very lucky against Brentford
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BRIGHTON star Joao Pedro escaped a red card during a goalless Premier League draw with Brentford at the Amex Stadium.
Pedro, 23, and the Bees' Yehor Yarmolyuk vied for the ball on 75 minutes.
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And Yarmolyuk, 20, committed a foul, for which he was booked by referee Andrew Madley.
However, VAR intervened to check for potential violent conduct by the Seagulls striker after the Ukrainian committed the foul.
Replays showed Pedro appearing to swing an elbow towards Yarmolyuk's face.
The Brazil international looked ready to deliver the blow but rapidly withdrew at the last moment.
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Replays also showed the Brazilian had clearly made little contact if any.
However, VAR deemed there was no violent conduct and Pedro was spared his marching orders.
The Premier League released a statement explaining why Brighton weren't left with ten men.
And the announcement claims that is because the referee’s call was "not clear and obviously wrong".
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The Prem statement read: "The referee’s call of no red card to Joao Pedro for violent conduct was checked and confirmed by VAR, who deemed the referee’s call was not clear and obviously wrong."
The scoreline remained the same after the controversial incident, which means the two clubs’ winless streaks go on.
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However, injury-hit Brentford will be happier with the draw than Brighton.
It was only Thomas Frank’s side’s second point on the road all season rather than the first away win they had hoped for.
But with their injury situation reaching crisis point it was probably more than some of their fans expected.
Brighton, meanwhile, are without a victory anywhere in six successive games - all against teams who had been in the bottom half of the table when they played them.
The Seagulls’ temporary rise up to second place in the table at the back end of last month is becoming a distant memory.
And they were perhaps fortunate that VAR ruled out a Brentford goal in the first half.
Brentford's injury hell
The Bees rolled up at a misty Amex Stadium without NINE injured players and it was ten by half-time as goalkeeper Mark Flekken limped off to be replaced by Iceland stopper Hakon Valdimarsson for his Premier League debut.
But Flekken had made his mark before being replaced. Brighton went in search of goals from the kick-off and were nearly ahead after four minutes.
Carlos Baleba picked off a poor pass out Flekken and fed Pedro. The Brazilian teed up Julio Enciso, whose curler beat Flekken’s left hand but smacked back off the post.
Then Baleba sent Flekken full-length with a snap shot from the edge of the penalty area, and Enciso tested the Brentford goalkeeper with a header from Kaoru Mitoma’s cross.
But Brentford had the ball in the net first. After 13 minutes Yoane Wissa ran onto Mads Roerslev’s pass infield from the right and hit a shot high past Bart Verbruggen and into the top far corner.
It seemed he had scored his first career goal against the Seagulls and also joined Ivan Toney as the club’s leading Premier League scorer with 36 goals.
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But VAR Chris Kavanagh ruled that he had been fractionally offside, by a kneecap.
Soon Flekken was in action again, clutching a 22-yard free-kick from Germany Under-21 winger Brajan Gruda, and then diving to his right to parry a shot by Matt O’Riley.
So Brentford fans' hearts were in their mouths when the keeper stayed down after kicking clear from a deflected cross from Mitoma.
Flekken carried on for a while, but was replaced after 35 minutes by Valdimarsson, who has 17 caps for Iceland but had not featured for Brentford since signing last January from Elfsborg.
Mikkel Damsgaard relieved the pressure for a while with a run past three Brighton defenders that finally ended when Joel Veltman put an uncompromising foot in.
And the action switched back to the other end, where O’Riley’s effort was deflected wide and then Mitoma half-volleyed into the side-netting.
'Same old story'
To Albion fans this felt a bit like the same old story of recent matches, as they were dominating possession but could not score.
By half-time they had had 15 shots to Brentford’s two but only six on target and were sometimes guilty of looking to walk the ball in.
The crowd were getting restless, hoping for fewer flicks and tricks and more purpose.
And there was the constant danger of a Brentford breakaway goal, which nearly came when Christian Norgaard’s scissor-kick was diverted just wide with Verbruggen scrambling.
Or when Nathan Collins got his head on a set play but sent the ball high into the ranks of visiting fans behind the goal.
The home side had scored in each of their previous 13 games and boss Fabian Hurzeler threw on wingers Yankuba Minteh and Simon Adingra to try to keep that run going. And then record £40million summer signing Georginio Rutter.
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But although most of the action was still in and around the Brentford penalty area, Valdimarsson was not nearly as busy as Flekken had been. And the team from West London were beginning to believe that they could nick a win.
Brighton even sent on long-serving winger Solly March for his first appearance since suffering a serious knee ligament injury 434 days before. But they continued to dither when the chances came to strike for goal.
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