Gerard Pique somehow manages to escape punishment for two-footed lunge

Gerard Pique is a lucky, lucky lad

A sentence which has nothing to do with the fact he's won every trophy imaginable in his professional football career, earned millions of pounds in the process and married Shakira... Instead, we're referring to how he managed to avoid being shown a red card in Spain's final group game of the 2018 World Cup. Facing Morocco in Kaliningrad, Pique went in for an early challenge with all studs showing. We're not allowed to post footage of the incident here unless we want a strongly worded letter from Gianni Infantino and the Fifa boys, but truthfully, an image probably does it justice. Here. Look... Oof. There was minimal contact with the man, but as many were quick to point out, this was very much a reckless challenge from Pique. The referee opted not to show red. In fact, he didn't show him any kind of card at all. Many of those watching found this strange, especially with the fact VAR didn't even bother taking a look. https://twitter.com/MelusiMaposa/status/1011311234245906435 https://twitter.com/BatesInThePlace/status/1011311175177588736 https://twitter.com/MatthewBurford/status/1011311133993721856 https://twitter.com/bobertAH09/status/1011313748685021184 https://twitter.com/DomBobb18/status/1011312457799946240 https://twitter.com/JodmosBear/status/1011311487334469633 Spain started the game with their progress to the last 16 stages all but mathematically sealed. Only a defear to Morocco combined with Iran beating Portugal would see them eliminated. Even then, it would be likely Spain would have to lose heavily.