John McGinn weighs in on Aberdeen v Motherwell red card carnage as Scotland star blasts VAR decision

Two long-range strikes from Kevin Nisbet and Graeme Shinne sent the holders into the last eight but the story of the match was the trio of sending offs that left Motherwell with nine men and Aberdeen down to 10.

Nisbet broke the deadlock in the fourth-minute, scoring directly from the free-kick that was the result of the first red card shown to Motherwell's Oscar Priestman for denying a goalscoring opportunity when he slipped and inadvertantly brought down on-loan Rangers midfielder Lyall Cameron as he bore down on goal.

John Beaton issued the red card and video assistant Chris Graham decided not to intervene as Motherwell claimed the ball was running through into Connelly’s hands.

Numbers were evened up when Dennis Geiger saw red - following a VAR review - after the German midfielder caught Motherwell's Lukas Fadinger full on with his studs in the midriff.

The visitors began to dominate but were unable to capitalise and were reduced to nine men early in the second half when defender Liam Gordon lost the ball to Aberdeen sub Toyosi Olusanya three yards inside his half.

Beaton initially gave a yellow card, ruling that Paul McGinn and Stephen O’Donnell were covering from either side, but Graham on VAR decided that was a clear and obvious error. After lengthy deliberations, the referee brandished his third red card of the night.

The Dons doubled their lead when Shinnie fired home from 23 yards after Mitchel Frame burst inside from the left to seal a quarter-final trip to Dunfermline.

Motherwell’s second dismissal prompted Aston Villa captain McGinn, currently sidelined by injury, to take to social media.

"Scottish var is a mess," the 30-year-old posted on X. "I’ve sent you to the screen let’s send you to an angle from the North Sea to back it up."

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou took particular exception to the red card shown to Gordon.

"The second red card is never ever a sending off," the Dane told Premier Sports. "We had two players covering.

"It's a clear yellow card. There's nothing there to suggest the referee should go to the monitor - and then there is pressure. It's a big mystery to me."

Aberdeen interim boss Peter Leven had no complaints with any of the decisions.

"Delighted to get through, but we need to be better,” he told BBC Scotland.

"I can't remember it back [first red card], but I just remember it turning to Tony Docherty saying, listen, we need to punish him here on the free-kick, as he did.

"I think Olusanya was through, I don't think anybody's catching him. And Dennis[Geiger] is a little bit high watching it live.

"But again, that comes from us being sloppy, not controlling the game, taking that man advantage, making that second ball game at times and not working hard enough to get on the ball."