The minutes of the Group D Champions League clash between Sporting Lisbon and Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday had almost shifted in favour of the North London club after Harry Kane seemingly scored a 95th-minute winner, but the celebrations were cut short after VAR intervened and ruled the goal offside.
It was a bizarre VAR decision as Harry Kane was behind the ball when Emerson Royal set it up for him inside the box. The ball even touched a Sporting defender on its way to Kane. However, the VAR still deemed it to be offside leaving everyone confused.
Here’s a video of the disallowed goal.
A furious Antonio Conte was shown a red card by a Dutch referee Danny Makkelie after he got into an argument about it.
The VAR deliberated on the decision for four whole minutes and eventually took the call to disallow the goal. Later, for the TV audience a frame was provided showed that the Spurs wingback Emerson Royal was in an offside position as he headed the ball.
However, the point of reference that the frame shows is when the Brazilian was heading the ball. The Perisic release, which led up to it, has been surprisingly left out of consideration.
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Here’s the frame that VAR shared showing Emerson Royal offside.
The Tottenham Hotspurs players were not ready to give up even after the match was over. They kept chasing the referee asking for an explanation.
In one of the videos, the referee is heard saying something along the lines of the ball went backwards, but the exact reason why it was ruled out is still not clear.
“I think the ball was in front of Kane and the goal is goal. I don’t understand the line that VAR put,” Antonio Conte said in the post-match interview. “It’s very difficult to comment on this decision and VAR I think is creating a lot of damage.”
We have to accept and I want to see if the same happens with a big team. I don’t like this type of situation because I don’t see positive things,” he added.
