The Premier League Match Centre has issued a statement on the controversy surrounding the Manchester United penalty scored by Bruno Fernandes and the red card shown to Maxence Lacroix in the same instance. The Crystal Palace defender brought down United attacker Matheus Cunha and conceded a penalty despite the contact starting outside of the area. After a VAR check, the defender was also shown red by referee Chris Kavanagh to reduce the Eagles - who led 1-0 until Fernandes scored from the spot - to 10 men.
The Match Centre statement read: "#MUNCRY – 52' VAR OVERTURN After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of no red card to Lacroix. Referee announcement: 'After review, Crystal Palace number 5 commits a clear holding offence which denies a clear, obvious, goalscoring opportunity. Final decision is penalty and red card.'"
Palace took the lead through Lacroix just four minutes in, when the Frenchman headed in the opener from Brennan Johnson's corner. But United equalised via Fernandes' penalty in the 57th minute and then took the lead eight minutes later through Benjamin Sesko's header from a Fernandes cross.