Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel doesn’t fully understand the laws of the game if he’s complaining about Alexandre Lacazette’s recent penalty against him for Arsenal, says former Premier League referee Mark Halsey.
The Denmark international is reported to have complained to PGMOL about Lacazette’s stuttering run-up for his recent spot kick against the Foxes, according to the Daily Mail.
However, Halsey told CaughtOffside that he saw no issue with Lacazette’s run-up, and in fact pointed out that Schmeichel was off his line when the Frenchman was preparing to take the spot-kick anyway.
“Feigning in the run-up is permitted. Once you get to the ball, you can’t feign. Feigning once the kicker has completed the run-up, is not permitted, and would be a yellow card,” Halsey said.
“So the Lacazette penalty was correct, by the laws of the game. I remember watching the penalty and Schmeichel was way off his line anyway. Even if there was feigning, he was off his line as well.
“The referee got it right, and we had VAR in place to check these things anyway, but the referee was completely correct in law.
“That’s the problem we have quite often with players not knowing the laws of the game. On this occasion, Kasper Schmeichel clearly doesn’t know the laws of the game, or at least doesn’t know Law 14 – the penalty kick.”
The funny thing is that Schmeichel’s best complaint would have been that Saka had encroached on the penalty area (the fact that he was off his line is interesting, but not at all relevant).
Up until very recently, that encroachment would lead to a re-take, but the interpretation of the rule (although not the rule itself) has changed.