Despite securing a 2-1 win on their European Championship debut, a section of Wales fans were a bitter lot following the elbowing incident involving Slovakia’s Martin Skrtel and their very own Jonathan Williams.
The incident happened 13 minutes to the final whistle when a well-calculated attack towards Slovakia’s danger zone resulted into a nasty elbow on Jonny Williams, who was seconds away from putting the ball into the net.
As the Crystal Palace man cruised towards the box, Martin Skrtel, who plies his trade for Liverpool in the Premier League as a defender, stopped the advancing forward with a terrible elbow right under the referee’s nose.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand also aired his views about the tackle in this tweet:
Skrtel with them WWE elbows!! 4th official eyes on the ball...watch the players please!!!
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) June 11, 2016
Interestingly, the fourth official ignored the calls for a penalty and neither did he think of giving a red, or at least, yellow card for the bizarre tackle. He however awarded Slovakia with a goal kick.
Watch the incident below:
Skrtel's elbow pic.twitter.com/mON3u2D1rU
— EURO 2016 (@UEFAEuros_2016) June 11, 2016
As expected football fans who were angered by the ‘blind officiating’ took to Twitter to troll the main culprit, Skrtel. Here are some of the best tweets:
Shocking new angle of that Martin Skrtel elbow from the first half... pic.twitter.com/WVyxvTxUKr
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 11, 2016
How Skrtel defends pic.twitter.com/i5Er5INuzu
— Footy Humour (@FootyHumour) June 11, 2016
Hopefully one day Skrtel and Pepe two-foot each other
— Footy Humour (@FootyHumour) June 11, 2016
Skrtel's defending like... pic.twitter.com/jhYD2GRz0I
— TheODDSbible (@TheOddsBible) June 11, 2016
The official behind the goal was 2 yards away from that Skrtel 'challenge'!Surprisingly, he did nothing. #wal
— Mark Chapman (@markchapman) June 11, 2016
Horrendous officiating. Penalty and a red card for Skrtel all day long.
— TheODDSbible (@TheOddsBible) June 11, 2016
Martin Skrtel with a shocking challenge in the box with no danger anywhere? Never...
— Dave O’Connell (@DaveOCKOP) June 11, 2016
Skrtel is lucky he did that right in front of the timid official who's too shy to mention anything to his boss.
— Jim Boardman (@JimBoardman) June 11, 2016
Martin Skrtel should've been sent off in the first half for his elbow on Jonathan Williams
— Matthew (@carrick_fan) June 11, 2016