Former FIFA referee delivers 'clear' verdict on controversial Chelsea v Newcastle United incident

Former FIFA and Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes Chelsea were lucky to keep 11 men on the pitch during their Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Newcastle United.

An error by Kieran Trippier in the second minute of stoppage time saw Mykhailo Mudryk cancel out Callum Wilson's first-half opener and send the game to penalties. And the Blues emerged as 4-2 winners in the shootout after Trippier and Matt Ritchie missed their efforts.

United's cup exit was compounded by injuries to Emil Krafth and Anthony Gordon. Krafth got a nasty gash on his leg following a challenge from Levi Colwill after Gordon was on the end a bad tackle by Mosies Caicedo just two minutes in.

Krafth didn't emerge for the second half while Gordon tried to continue but was unable to continue for much longer as a result of Caicedo, whose studs dragged down the back of the winger's calf.

Speaking after the game, United head coach Eddie Howe said: “Emil was too sore to continue. He’s got a nasty gash on his shin, which is quite sore at the moment.

“Anthony is the same. I thought it was a really poor tackle on him. It was the type of tackle you don’t want to see, taking one of our attacking players out of the game. He’s very sore at the minute.

“Should it have been a red card? It’s too difficult to say live and I haven’t seen it again, but I’m taking opinion from other people and they say they thought it was.”

Among those to voice their opinion on social media was former official Hackett, who posted on X "Clear red should be off."

Caicedo was shown a yellow card by referee Jarred Gillett and with no VAR in action, there was no way of reviewing the decision.

Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville also took to X during the match and simply said "red". The midfielder, who joined from Brighton and Hove Albion in the summer for £115million, played the full match.