Lisandro Martinez accused of 'fighting' Man Utd opponent moments after horror tackle

Lisandro Martinez was accused of almost costing Manchester United against Crystal Palace by trying to 'fight' Ismaila Sarr rather than tracking his run.

Martinez was at the centre of a contentious incident shortly after the hour mark when he jumped into a challenge with Daichi Kamada near the Palace box. The Argentina international was deemed reckless but not dangerous, meaning the card was yellow rather than red.

Moments later, though the ball was at the other end of the field and almost in the United goal. Eddie Nketiah tested Andre Onana with a low drive, and the United keeper picked himself back up to deny Ismaila Sarr from the rebound.

Sarr had escaped the attentions of Martinez to get to the loose ball first. And pundit Jamie Redknapp, reflecting on the incident in the Sky Sports studio, had strong opinions on who was at fault.

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"I tell you who is lucky here, Martinez," Redknapp said. "For some reason he is trying to get in a bit of a fight there. Sarr comes in, he follows it in and Martinez gets caught the wrong side. He is the one hesitating, he gets lucky his keeper bails him out.

'You would look on the analysis and think he has got to do better on the rebound. 'His keeper has certainly bailed him out with that big right hand, it is a really good save."

Cameroonian goalkeeper Onana wasn't completely happy after the match, despite his heroics. "I don’t think it [the double save] is so important because we didn’t win," he told Sky Sports. "We are such a big club. When we move somewhere, we have the ambition to try to win."

Did Lisandro Martinez get away with one? Have your say in the comments section

Martinez's two-footed tackle was checked by VAR, but it was ruled that the on-field decision from referee David Coote should stand. "VAR checked for a potential red card and confirmed the referee’s call of no red card, deeming this was a reckless challenge and made no contact with Kamada," the Premier League Match Centre account explained on social media.

"It is a tackle we saw many years ago. I don't know what on earth you are thinking you are going to gain by jumping in with two feet," Redknapp said.

"You've got them in a nice position. If he lands on Kamada's foot he goes down and it is a straight red. The only thing why he doesn't get a straight red card is because somehow just misses his foot. You can see as he lands he just doesn't catch him. It's ridiculous."

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