Why was Abdukodir Khusanov not sent off for Man City against Brentford?

Manchester City centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov was lucky not to receive a red card early into his side’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford on Wednesday night.

On 16 minutes, he came rushing across and wiped out forward Kevin Schade when the German was clean through, but the referee only chose to brandish a yellow.

Brentford players swarmed around referee Sam Barrott and pleaded for the Uzbekistani to be sent off, but England held firm and stuck with his decision.

"He was in on goal, he would have got a shot away, it is a goalscoring opportunity,” former Man City defender Andy Hinchcliffe said on Sky Sports’ commentary.

"I can understand why Brentford are unhappy. He was in on goal and he was taken out. No covering defender was going to stop him."

He later added: "It was poor defending from Khusanov. It was a clear foul, he was in on goal. For me, it should have been a red card."

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Sam Barrott only brandished a yellow card for Abdukodir Khusanov (Getty Images)

By the laws of the game, Khusanov committed a red card offence as he “denied the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity”, as per Law 12 of Ifab’s rulebook.

Usually, such a clear and obvious error from the referee would be referred to VAR.

However, there is no VAR in the Carabao Cup until the semi-finals - the next round - due to the fact the technology is only available at Premier League venues.

League One side Cardiff City were still in the competition for the last eight and thus would not have been able to use VAR, with the stipulation ensuring a level playing field across all ties. They were knocked out by Chelsea on Tuesday.

The lack of VAR nevertheless gave City a reprieve as they avoided going a man down in a pivotal moment of the game.