Ronald Araujo came out of Wembley unscathed, but that doesn’t seem to be understood in England. Barcelona’s centre-back played the full game in the friendly against Uruguay (1-1), despite an incident in the 50th minute that angered the stadium, commentators and the home bench. He did his best to go after loose balls, arriving late and finding Phil Foden’s ankle with a spine-chilling tackle. “That’s to break his leg!” was broadcast on ITV. Foden writhes on the grass and Thomas Tuchel loses his temper on the touchline, turning his head towards the Uruguayan bench. Referee Sven Jablonski called for a foul. Not even a yellow card.
The reaction was immediate and unanimous. Ian Wright said: “It almost ended badly for Phil. Araujo was completely out of control.” Harry Maguire added: “There’s no way you can see a tackle like that and not get a red card. With just a few months to go until the World Cup, our referees are allowing a tackle like that… it’s disappointing.” Paul Robinson made the same point on BBC Radio 5 Live, saying: “The more you look at that tackle, the worse it looks. He came in very, very late and ran him over.” Foden was able to continue, but Tuchel replaced him after five minutes. He didn’t want to tempt fate.
The controversy escalated further regarding VAR. I don’t understand why England didn’t intervene to review Araujo’s actions, but instead intervened in stoppage time to give Fede Valverde a penalty that allowed him to equalize. “What is VAR for? Araujo could have broken Foden’s leg,” said Emma Hayes. There were also problems with Uruguay’s yellow cards (only two in the entire match) and Manuel Ugarte’s confusion. Meanwhile, Araujo spoke to the media without mentioning the incident, and another headline read: “Good message. We competed and managed to get the equalizer at the end. We almost won the game.” Wembley still had the same image in mind.
