I think this is a very good issue you raise. On a very similar theme I've always being curious about the following type of sliding tackle in the box. A defender slides in and gets a touch on the ball that nudges it away from the attacker. However after touching the ball and following through he secondly clips the foot of the attacker bringing him down (i.e. the momentum of the tackle saw him make contact with the ball first and then make contact with the player). In this case should it be a penalty eventhough he touched the ball first? You could argue that even though he touched the ball first by making contact with the attacker with the follow through he prevented a clear goal scoring chance? Does that make sense?
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