Australia’s Jackson Irvine has no sympathy for Paraguay after historic World Cup red card

Socceroo Jackson Irvine has backed the decision by Fifa to send players off for covering their mouths when they speak, after Paraguay winger Miguel Almirón was given a historic red card against Turkey. The Socceroos and Paraguay face a showdown for second place in the group at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on Thursday (Friday AEST). If either team loses they will face a torturous wait to find out if they will progress as one of the eight third-placed teams across the 12 groups. Almirón was the first player sent off under a rule introduced by Fifa for this tournament to address the trend of footballers covering their mouth when confronting opponents. In a boost for the Socceroos, he will be suspended for his team’s final Group D clash. Irvine, a member of Fifpro’s global player council, said the players had been given fair warning, and the rule was justified. “I know it’s going to be controversial in some ways because we don’t know the nature of what [the comment] was, but when you look at what’s happened in the past, especially around what happened with Vinícius Júnior, I think it takes everything out of the equation.” The highest profile example of the controversial conduct was earlier this year when Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni made comments to Real Madrid’s Júnior while covering his mouth with his shirt. …