By now we’ve all seen the stories of what happened in this previous weekend’s match between Aston Villa and Leeds United. Craziness. Chaos. Cards. The incident was sure to go to review by the FA, and we now have the results.
Just as a refresher here are the details of the incident, as well as the video as-it-happened:
The most controversial goal of the season, bar NONE! 😲
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) April 28, 2019
Leeds United score whilst Aston Villa's Jonathan Kodjia is down injured 🤕
A mass brawl kicks off! 👊
Anwar El Ghazi gets sent off 🔴 pic.twitter.com/BHbLhr2uGb
The FA has reviewed the situation and I must say, things couldn’t have gone any better for Aston Villa. Anwar El Ghazi has had his red card rescinded following a determination that he did not, in fact, did not participate in violent conduct. The incident in question was a phantom strike to the face of Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford:
You can watch the incident in question here.
It should be noted that Bamford has been deemed to have “successfully deceived a match official” and will face a 2-match suspension. This could have real implications for Leeds, as they will have to play their first playoff semi-final match without one of their better goal-scorers.
The other, perhaps less publicized portion of the ruling is that Villa man Conor Hourihane will not receive any further disciplinary action for his involvement in Sunday’s incident. I’ll admit this came as a bit of a shock to me, given the fact that he was at the center of everything.
Alas, as you can see, things couldn’t have worked out more swimmingly for Aston Villa. This will surely do nothing to silence the haters that have seemingly vilified the club for getting “all the calls” this season.
So, what does this mean going forward? For Aston Villa, it now means, well, nothing.
More from Aston Villa News
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- Aston Villa draw Hibernian or FC Luzern for Europa Conference League play-off
- Aston Villa sign winger Moussa Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen
- Aston Villa close in on deal to sign Pau Torres from Villareal
Anwar El Ghazi will be available for selection against Norwich, as will Hourihane. It remains to be seen whether or not Dean Smith will include either of these players in the starting XI for this match, but both will surely be relied upon to perform during the play-offs. UTV