In Scotland’s opening EURO 2024 match against Germany, Ryan Porteous’ red card just before halftime reduced the Scottish team to ten men with Florian Wirtz of Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024. Image courtesy of REUTERS

In Scotland’s opening EURO 2024 match against Germany at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday, Ryan Porteous was sent a red card just before halftime, leaving Scotland with just 10 men.

When Porteous fouled Ilkay Gundogan in the 45th minute, the German midfielder cried out in agony and demanded a penalty. Even though Clement Turpin, the referee, did not originally point to the spot, he gave Germany a penalty and gave the Scottish defense marching orders after checking the monitor and consulting the video-assistant-referee (VAR).

In doing so, he became the first player from Scotland to earn a red card in a major event (World Cup/EUROs) since Craig Burley against Morocco in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the first player to be sent off on his Euro debut since Aleksandar Dragovic for Austria against Hungary in 2016.

Ryan Porteous received a red card, why?

Because Porteous disregarded Law 12 of the Football Laws of the Game, he was given a straight red card. Football regulations state that a straight red can be given in the following situations:

Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a handball

Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a foulSerious foul play

Violent conductUsing offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s)

Receiving a second yellow card (caution) in the same match

The second explanation applies to Porteous in this instance as well because his challenge was careless (read: foul), denying the Barcelona midfielder a clean chance to score.

His two boots were facing Gundogan’s right leg, which strengthened the referee’s argument to give him a straight red card rather than a yellow one.