After being sent off in the 3-1 defeat to Rennes last night, Sokratis says that he doesn’t blame the referee before blaming the referee for issuing what he believed were ‘easy’ yellow cards. The Greek defender suggested that VAR would have prevented him from being red-carded, and admitted that his departure changed the game.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, he said, “I don’t criticise the referee but maybe if the VAR is coming, it can help. He can make mistakes, like we can. “I think the referee give me two easy yellow cards. Both were too easy. The first, I didn’t touch him and the second is too easy, you know? “It is better if they put in VAR and this helps the referee a little bit more. The decision was very bad.”
Like Petr Cech though, he’s sure that the Gunners can turn it around in the second leg, where just a 2-0 win would see us through: “With BATE we had to score two goals and now if we score two goals, we are there and I think that we have the team and the power in our home to do it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Unai Emery refused to be critical of the former Borussia Dortmund man’s sending off, saying, “Sokratis has very good commitment, he has very good behaviour and he received two yellow cards in two actions of playing.” “A red card can come,” he said. “Two yellow cards and it’s the referee’s decision. “After, I think we must learn to play – when it’s coming like today – with one less player on the pitch. “Not a good experience today, because we couldn’t do our work in difficult moments, in difficult minutes, with one less player, like we wanted.”

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