James Murray

Sun 31 December 2023 9:47, UK

There were embarrassing scenes on Match of the Day in response to a controversial incident involving Aston Villa forward Jhon Duran against Burnley on Saturday (30 December).

Speaking on the BBC’s football highlights show (18:42), host Gary Lineker accused the 20-year-old of diving as he was awarded a late penalty against the Clarets at Villa Park.

But pundit Dion Dublin believes there was contact from former Villa academy product Aaron Ramsey on the Colombian international before Douglas Luiz slotted home from the spot to secure a 3-2 victory for his side.

It had been a tense affair throughout the afternoon, with the Villans twice taking the lead in the first half through Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby, while Zeki Amdouni and Lyle Foster levelled things up for the visitors.

Vincent Kompany’s side played the majority of the second half with 10 men after Sander Berge was sent off before Duran came off the bench to win an 89th-minute penalty, a decision Dublin appeared to be on the fence about on Match of the Day.

“A little kick at the bottom of the foot there,” said the pundit. “Ramsey’s given him a bit of a kick. Yes, he catches him. It’s not that bad. Is it enough to make him fall over? He puts his foot down after he’s been kicked.”

“Do you think the fact we have VAR looking at these things, I know the fact the referee gave it in this instant, but do you think it encourages this kind of diving? asked Lineker. “I mean because it was, wasn’t it? He feels a little touch and he goes down.”

“All we hear now is, if you don’t go down, if you don’t make the referee make the decision, then what do you do?” added Dublin.

There is absolutely no doubt that there was contact on Duran from Ramsey as he just nipped the ball away from the Burnley midfielder, as the footage on Match of the Day showed.

While it may not have been the biggest of connections with the Colombian, when a player is travelling at speed, sometimes the slightest touch can knock them off-balance and cause them to go down.

Was it enough to send him to the floor? Perhaps there is a debate around that, but he definitely wouldn’t have been given a penalty if he had stayed on his feet.

Duran certainly wasn’t hurt by the incident, though, as his reaction to turn around and look at the referee immediately after the challenge suggests he may have been trying to make it look worse than it was.

But the important thing to note in this situation is that the referee did make the decision himself and there was no involvement from VAR after many stakeholders have complained about how much the video assistants have been getting involved recently.

With there being contact on Duran’s foot, it was never going to be a decision they were going to overturn because it wasn’t a clear and obvious error.

While you can understand Burnley’s frustrations at it being a relatively soft penalty, there is absolutely no doubt that just about every manager would be disappointed if they weren’t given a spot kick in this instance following some of the decisions that have been given this season.

Villa will just be glad it went in their favour this time as that vital three points took them joint-top of the Premier League alongside Liverpool.

In other Aston Villa news, a broadcaster has blasted a big-name player linked with a move to Villa.