Ollie Watkins appeals for an Aston Villa decision against Bayern Munich (credit: TNT Sports on YouTube)

Aston Villa v Bayern Munich referee commended amid Ollie Watkins controversy

Dan is a Villa-mad presenter, podcaster and panellist. He’s presented for AVFC Official Facebook Live and The Villa View YouTube channel. Dan’s also featured for The Athletic and Sky Sports News. He’s now sharing his opinions on the first team, the academy and the women’s team with Villa News.

Published on:

04 Oct 2024, 6:10 am

Dan Bardell has lauded referee Radu Petrescu in the Aston Villa win against Bayern Munich despite a controversial moment involving Ollie Watkins.

The Villans secured a superb 1-0 win at Villa Park against the Bundesliga giants on Wednesday 2 October with Jhon Duran scoring the winner off the bench.

Things could have been so different after the referee was embroiled in controversy as Dayot Upamecano dragged down the Villa striker twice in the first half.

Supporters inside Villa Park were raging but Sky Sports and talkSPORT journalist Bardell has picked out some positive aspects of his showing.

Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bardell said: "It was a strange performance from the referee.

"I quite like in Europe that they seem to let the game flow a little bit more and I think he did that well in the first half.

"The Upamecano one, the first foul is much worse than the second one that he got booked for so that was strange.

"I felt in the second half he went the other way and wasn't letting anything go.

"I thought Upamecano was lucky to stay on the pitch, Ollie Watkins was getting in and amongst him, causing him problems and giving him a real uncomfortable evening by running him ragged."

Aston Villa v Bayern Munich referee hounded for Ollie Watkins decision

There is no doubt that the performance from the home side was superb which saw them arguably deserve all three points against Bayern.

The clash was level at 0-0 at half time with fans left frustrated by one decision which went against them.

Upamecano hauled down Watkins early on before doing it again not too long after with the referee only awarding one foul and a yellow card.

This didn't go down well on the terraces as the official's performance continued to be slammed as he continued to give some fouls and ignore other blatant poor challenges.

Upamecano brought down Watkins twice while being last man but only received a yellow card in the first half 👀 pic.twitter.com/cpMCN21pQS
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 2, 2024