{"id":524651,"date":"2025-10-24T11:53:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/524651\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T11:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:53:22","slug":"keith-hackett-hits-out-at-huge-error-after-re-analysing-nottingham-forest-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/524651\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Hackett hits out at ‘huge error’ after re-analysing Nottingham Forest controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Referee<\/p>\n

(Credit: TNT Sports)<\/p>\n

\"Oliver <\/p>\n

Fri 24 October 2025 9:32, UK <\/p>\n

Referee Radu Petrescu was wrong to initially book Nicolo Savona for a dive before giving Nottingham Forest a rightful penalty against Porto following a VAR review.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett<\/a>, who exclusively told Football Insider<\/strong> that it is tough to understand how Radu Petrescu did not give the penalty at the first time of asking.<\/p>\n

Nottingham Forest<\/a> were in dire need of a win on Thursday (23 October) against Porto as Sean Dyche took charge of his first Forest game<\/a> since being appointed as their new boss.<\/p>\n

They were handed a great opportunity to open the scoring in the 19th minute when Jan Bednarek was adjudged to have handled the ball in the hosts\u2019 box, and Morgan Gibbs-White<\/a> put his penalty away with aplomb.<\/p>\n

Bednarek thought he had got the visitors back level just after the interval as he prodded home from close-range, but Samu was deemed to be in an offside position before it fell back to the Polish defender and so Forest remained ahead.<\/p>\n

Savona was caught in the Reds\u2019 area by Porto\u2019s Martim Fernandes with 12 minutes left on the clock, and despite initially blowing for a Porto free-kick, Petrescu did see the error of his ways as a penalty was soon given for Igor Jesus<\/a> to slam home and make it 2-0.<\/p>\n

\"Everton\"Forest\u2019s Savona penalised for a dive before VAR review leads to penalty<\/p>\n

Forest needed a two-goal advantage to really feel safe of their win at the City Ground, but many thought they had been denied that chance in the 78th minute when Romanian official Petrescu gave Porto a free-kick for Savona\u2019s alleged dive.<\/p>\n

MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n

The Reds\u2019 summer signing swiveled to enter the box after Gibbs-White had won the ball back from Pepe, and the visitors\u2019 full-back Fernandes seemingly tripped him to the ground as he looked to get past him.<\/p>\n

Petrescu immediately pointed the other way and brandished a booking for the Italian defender, but he was soon sent to the VAR screen as a spot-kick was eventually given.<\/p>\n

It was a pivotal moment in the game as Jesus stepped up to double Dyche\u2019s side\u2019s lead, but the referee needed assistance in eventually reaching the correct outcome as Forest beat Porto 2-0 in the East Midlands.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Difficult to understand\u2019 Petrescu\u2019s free-kick decision \u2013 Hackett<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider<\/strong> about the situation, the former referee said: \u201cWhen you stick a leg out as in this situation and it comes into contact with your opponent you are vulnerable to be judged that you have committed a foul.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a clear penalty kick and difficult to understand why the referee (pointed) in any other way.<\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/p>\n

\u201cA referee operating at this level should avoid making such a huge error. It is a foul not a dive and clearly the referee needs to receive the appropriate operational advice.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: TNT Sports) Fri 24 October 2025 9:32, UK Referee Radu Petrescu was wrong to initially book Nicolo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,2696,170328,178,170329,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-524651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-keith-hackett","10":"tag-nicolo-savona","11":"tag-nottingham-forest","12":"tag-radu-petrescu","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115429010181361611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}