Thank you. I therefore really don’t understand why the defender yellow became red once the penalty was overturned. But that’s one for the German FA not this forum!
My impression was that it's a yellow if you make a mistimed attempt to play the ball and bring down the man, as opposed to bringing down the man with no attempt to play the ball. I assumed that applied to any defender, not just the goalkeeper, but maybe it's as Liam describes. In this instance Mills had already beaten the defender with a great touch and their man just threw an arm across his face and smacked him in the mouth as he was poised to shoot from right in front of goal. It was enough to knock him down and he needed fairly lengthy treatment while Wanadio had to wait 2 or 3 minutes to take the kick. He made no attempt whatsoever to play the ball, so it was essentially violent conduct as well as denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity.
After we'd had a penalty the home crowd behind the goal was repeatedly shouting for penalties every time there was a challenge inside the box, or a defender blocked the ball with his body, and eventually the referee gave one. It just looked like a shot fired straight at the defender's body to me, although I was too far away to be certain.
The linesman failing to keep his flag up for offside as we cleared the ball before the equaliser was also crucial. (I think he just put it down before the referee saw it, rather than the referee waving play on.)
I thought Hansson for Shonibare at half time was a slightly strange substitution when Ayuk was also on the bench, and I'd have been tempted to replace him with Bonnett-Johnson after the red card, which would have been harsh but perhaps more effective in the circumstances.
The highlight was a great goal from Mills, brushing off his marker just inside the left corner of the box and shooting inside the far post from 15 yards.
Considering the number of tight matches this season, I felt all the points dropped in the games I've seen were down to our own shortcomings. This is the first time I've really felt we might have got a better result with a different referee.
I didn't think either of Okpolokpo's cards looked especially unfair, although I was 80 yards away for the first and my view was partially obscured for the second. He'll now be suspended for Boxing Day. Right back seems to have become a persistent problem, with first Ming, then Scarlett apparently discarded for good. I'm not sure what's happened to Pascal, who I thought generally did his job without looking out of the ordinary or offering much in the attacking half.
As for Hummels and the Bundesliga, maybe the referee simply didn't regard it as a clear goalscoring opportunity before the review?