Argentine forward Sergio Aguero has said that he apologised to David Luiz for his two-footed lunge at the Brazilian during Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Manchester City.
The City forward clearly saw red when the Brazilian attempted to knock him off the ball by hitting Aguero in the chest with his shoulder and elbow, but he was very fortunate not to be sent off for his reaction as both of Aguero’s feet connected with the Chelsea man’s backside.
Speaking via his Twitter account (@aguerosergiokun), the 24-year-old said:
“I’ve contacted @DavidLuiz_4 and apologized for what happened during the match.
“It was an impulse reaction that shouldn’t have happened.”
Luiz replied:
“Thank you @aguerosergiokun for a demonstration of character. We get to know great man and athletes this way.”
Luckily Luiz was unharmed by the challenge and didn’t really make a big deal of it in his post match interview, he just said that it was understandable that players can lose their heads and that he’d forgiven him. Despite how bad the challenge was Aguero escaped any punishment for it, which has once again brought the Football Association’s disciplinary procedures into question and also how far football is behind other sports when it comes to these types of incidents. If this was rugby, for example, he’d already be looking at a ban.
But it is good to see the City forward apologise as he knows it was a bad challenge and it isn’t his fault that the officials failed to do their job. Also, seeing as the FA are a shambles, they couldn’t really reprimand him after setting a dangerous precedent by allowing dangerous tackles and unfair play go unpunished previously, like the incident involving Callum McManaman on Massadio Haidara, Luiz’s cowardly challenge on Brentford’s Jake Reeves and Luis Suarez’s stamp on David Jones.
It’s time for a change in the rules so that players that are clearly guilty receive the appropriate punishment for the good of all the clubs and their players, or will the FA wait until someone gets seriously injured?
