‘The game has gone’ – a bad night for VAR in semi-final

Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Newcastle in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final was overshadowed by a contentious decision to disallow a goal from Antoine Semenyo in the second half.

The £65m January signing fired City ahead after 53 minutes and thought he had added a second 10 minutes later when he flicked Tijjani Reijnders’ cross past Nick Pope.

However, the forward was denied what would have been a third goal in two games for his new side after a five-and-a-half-minute VAR check determined Erling Haaland had interfered with play from an offside position.

“The second goal should have stood,” Semenyo said after the game.

Haaland was jostling for position with Newcastle’s Malick Thiaw when he was deemed to have obstructed the defender from stopping Semenyo’s effort.

Both players were closer to goal than goalkeeper Pope, meaning that whether Haaland was ahead of Thiaw, the deepest Newcastle outfield player, was irrelevant. The factual offside appeared quite clear.

However, a failure of the semi-automated offside technology meant the lines had to be drawn manually and it was more than four minutes before an image confirming the offside was shown on the television coverage.

In that time, the crowd at St James’ Park had grown increasingly restless, with boos and anti-VAR chants filling much of the delay.

After more than four minutes, referee Chris Kavanagh was finally sent to the screen to assess whether Haaland had affected Pope or Thiaw’s ability to play the ball.

Kavanagh watched the incident several times on the pitchside monitor before, five minutes and 40 seconds after the ball hit the back of the net, he announced his decision to disallow the goal.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Pep Guardiola said the disallowed goal will make his side “stronger”.

Guardiola added: “I’d like to know why VAR in the 60th minute of the Premier League game against Newcastle – that we lost 2-1 – it was 0-0 and it was a penalty for [Fabian] Schar on Phil Foden, not even consideration.

“In the 20th minute there is an unbelievable penalty for the shot for Jeremy Doku off the hand, and not even VAR.

“I’m pretty sure Howard Webb [technical director for Professional Game Match Officials] is going to call me tomorrow to take explanations for that.

“Today was more than six minutes [reviewing] and we’re not even able to discuss it with the referee. But they will call me.”

Captain Bernardo Silva also voiced frustration about the decision, particularly after the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel noted Foden was wrongfully denied a penalty in his side’s Premier League defeat at the same venue earlier this season.

“It should have been 3-0, but we are quite used to this at the moment,” said Silva.

“It is so frustrating because the last time we came here we also had a lot of decisions go against us.”

City eventually scored a second goal deep into stoppage time when Rayan Cherki fired past Pope.

After a weekend where supporters enjoyed the FA Cup without VAR, this was a very different experience for fans at St James’ Park.

The job of the video assistant, Stuart Attwell, was made harder because the semi-automated offside technology failed, as it did when the two teams met in the Premier League in December. The players were too close together, so it meant Attwell had to revert to the old technology and draw lines.

The decision reached was technically correct in law, because Haaland was offside and in direct contact with a defender who could possibly have stopped the ball going into the goal.

But fans won’t see it that way. They will see a perfectly legitimate goal with an offside offence which wouldn’t have been noticed but for VAR.

If the decision had been quick, there would have been much more confidence. But the extended delay adds to the controversy and gives the impression the VAR was not certain. It would have been better if the VAR had left this alone.

A decision being technically right is not necessarily what the game wants in this context.

Former Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers striker Chris Sutton agreed with Guardiola and Silva and said Kavanagh’s verdict looked like a “sheer guess”.

“I think the game has gone,” added Sutton. “Is Thiaw really going to stop that? The distance from Semenyo is a yard, a yard and a half. Thiaw is not going to react to that.”

Ex-Liverpool and England midfielder Jamie Redknapp and Newcastle defender Dan Burn said it was the correct call to rule out Semenyo’s effort, though both criticised the process.

“If they had given the goal there wouldn’t be one person that looked at this and thought it shouldn’t have been allowed,” said Redknapp.

“But by the letter of the law, whether we like it or not, it is the right decision.”

Meanwhile, Burn, who missed the game through injury, added: “I do think it is the right decision, I just don’t like the subjective offside. It’s either offside, or it’s not.

“We don’t want to see that, but by the letter of the law it should be disallowed.”

Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards said: “I understand the process but VAR wasn’t brought in for this reason here.

“This is anti-goal which they said they weren’t going to do, they said they weren’t going to re-referee the game.

“This for me is re-refereeing the game. They are both going at it. It might be right, but I don’t think we should be taking away goals for this. Why take five minutes?”

Aman: Get rid of VAR! It’s a joke, the officials are trying to find reasons to not award goals! There was no reason to rule out that second goal!

Mick: The worst VAR decision I have ever seen. There are re-refereeing the game.

George: As fans we didn’t ask for VAR, it was pushed upon us and it’s ruined the game. As soon as the ref goes to the screen we all know how it’s going to pan out. It all just takes too long. Rubbish.

Finn: So VAR has decided that Haaland made Pope jump forward and try to stop the shot. WOW. Laughable.

Ian: That was a terrible decision of offside, you couldn’t tell if it was on or offside! If it’s not obvious it should be a goal! Football is supposed to be about scoring goals! VAR killing the game slowly.