Arman Hovhannisyan also managed to avoid a red card
Armenia defender Arman Hovhannisyan lost his cool during his side’s Nations League defeat to Scotland on Wednesday night after he threw a water bottle towards the assistant referee for not ruling out a goal for offside.
Scotland were already 2-0 up at the time courtesy of Anthony Ralston’s opener on his first start for the Tartan Army and a Scott McKenna header.
Anthony Ralston scores on his full debut inside the first 30 minutes for @ScotlandNT! 🙌
Superb header! 💥 pic.twitter.com/i4PlQZOk0E
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) June 8, 2022
Armenia defender throws bottle in direction of linesman
Steve Clarke’s side then thought they had gone 3-0 up after McKenna found the back of the net but the away side were left outraged after believing that there was an offside in the build up.
Luckily for Armenia the goal had been ruled out after VAR reversed the decision, but that didn’t stop Hovhannisyan from expressing his frustrations beforehand.
He was left feeling so furious that he picked up his goalkeeper’s water bottle and promptly hurled it in the direction of the nearby assistant referee.
Thankfully the official wasn’t struck by the bottle but any fit of rage like that would surely mean a straight red card, you’d think. You’d think wrong.
Somehow the 28-year-old wasn’t even carded, despite the use of VAR, as well as Scotland’s John McGinn protesting to referee Sebastian Gishame.
❌ "He's a lucky boy to be on the pitch."
The frustration was evident for the Armenian players as a bottle seemingly gets thrown in the direction of the linesmen! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9rfTjXJeXa
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) June 8, 2022
Former Scotland striker and pundit, James McFadden, admitted he was surprised that VAR didn’t take a look at the incident at Hampden Park.
He said: “To pick a bottle up, and even think about throwing at an official, and to get away with it; incredible.
“We have VAR, they have cameras everywhere, they should be looking at that.”
Scotland begin Nations League campaign with a win
Scotland went on to win the game comfortably as they started off their Nations League campaign with three points – just days after their World Cup play-off heartbreak against Ukraine.
They now face Ireland on Saturday as they hope to follow up their performance with another win.
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