Referee forgot to show red card in Europa League semi-final
When the semi-final second leg of Sevilla - Juventus turned to 114, referee Makkelie showed a yellow card to Acuna for a slow throw-in. Before that, in the 57th minute, he gave the first yellow card to the Sevilla player.
Leandro Paredes, Acuna's teammate in Argentina and currently plays for Juventus, reminded the referee about forgetting to show the red card. Then Makkelie stepped forward and sent off the Sevilla defender. Before leaving the field, Acuna shouted loudly, protesting the referee's decision.
Playing short of people in the last minutes, but Sevilla still successfully defended the score 2-1. Acuna and teammates reached the final with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
This match, Juventus opened the score in the second leg in the 65th minute, but could not keep the advantage. In the 71st minute, Suso scored an equalizer for Sevilla. The final draw was 2-2 in 90 minutes of the main kick, the two teams had to play two extra periods. Five minutes into extra time, another Argentine, Erik Lamela, headed home the winning goal for Sevilla.
With the red card, Acuna had to sit out the final on May 31. Sevilla's next opponent is Roma, who beat Leverkusen 1-0 in the remaining semi-final.
Sevilla holds the record of winning six UEFA Cups/Europa Leagues. Meanwhile, Roma coach Jose Mourinho has never lost a European Cup final. He won the 2003 UEFA Cup, 2004 Champions League with Porto, 2010 Champions League with Inter, 2017 Europa League with Man Utd and the 2022 Conference League with Roma.
Paredes and Acuna were both members of the Argentina team that won the 2022 World Cup. In the final, they both came on from the bench. It was Paredes who scored the third penalty in the 4-2 victory over France. Currently, he plays for Juventus on a one-season loan deal from PSG. This season, he played 32 games and scored one goal for "Old Lady". Juventus are second in Serie A with 69 points from 35 games, eight points ahead of fifth-placed AC Milan before the last three rounds.
Referee Makkelie used to lead the Europa League 2020 final, two group stage matches, a round of 1/8 match and a semi-final of Euro 2021 and two group stage matches of the 2022 World Cup.
