Tottenham Hotspur were left raging last night following VARs controversial decision to disallow Harry Kane's winning goal against Sporting CP. The striker thought he had scored the goal to secure Spurs' place in the knockout stages in added time but was deemed to be in an offside position.
Antonio Conte's men knew that victory over the Portuguese side would ensure they avoided the tricky task of visiting Marseille's Stade Velodrome needing the result to go their way. However, the evening did not go to plan when ex-Spurs attacker Marcus Edwards broke the deadlock with a screamer after 22 minutes.
Rodrigo Bentancur headed the equaliser past Antonio Adan in the 80th minute as Spurs piled an onslaught onto their opponents. After missed chances from Eric Dier, Kane was in the right place at the right time with a poacher's finish from Emerson Royal's knockdown to complete the turnaround.
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However, after a three-minute VAR check, Dutch referee Danny Makkeile provoked fury inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when he ruled out the goal. Conte was sent off in the aftermath of the decision, and Dier placed his argument that "the ball went backwards". But why was the dramatic winner ruled out?
Well, according to Law 11.1 of the Laws of the Game, the decision was the correct decision. It states that an attacker is offside if any part of the head, body, or feet is in the opponent's half (excluding the halfway line) and any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponent's goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.
Kane's knee was unfortunately ahead of the ball when Emerson knocked it down, meaning the striker was offside. Any calls that the goal should have been allowed after the ball had clipped a sporting player on its way to Kane are irrelevant due to Law 11.2.
That rule states that a player in an offside position the moment the ball is played or touched by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by: gaining an advantage by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent when it has: rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar, match official or an opponent.
Flavio Nazinho did not make a clear, deliberate attempt to play the ball, meaning that exception doesn't count. Despite the law backing VARs decision to disallow Kane's goal, Conte was reluctant to accept the decision in his post-match press conference.
Asked about his thoughts on the events at the end of the game, he said: "At the end, because all the people come into the pitch and then the referee decided to send me off, only for this. I think there are moments that maybe you can be a bit intelligent to understand you have just disallowed a regular goal because the goal was regular. The ball is in front of Kane. And then the VAR.
"I repeat, you know I don't comment on referee decisions, but the VAR, this season, I don't know why between Premier League and Champions League, we are not so lucky. I don't know why until now, we are also the only team who repeated the penalty, and for every penalty I go to see if the keeper moves on his line. I see it a lot of the time. I want to see the repetition of a penalty in the Premier League. I think we are not so lucky with VAR, but I think they create big damage.
"I would like to see if this type of decision you can take with a top team in an important game, yeah I would like to see if VAR is so brave to take this decision. I repeat this unfair decision because the ball is in front of Kane. Sorry, but I am really upset because sometimes you can accept this situation, and sometimes I think it is not good because I don't see honesty in this type of situation, and when I see this, I become really, really upset.
"For the game, we played the first half with low intensity, and Sporting deserved to stay 1-0 up, and at the end of the game after our second half, I think we deserved to get three points. Now for this decision, we have to wait until the last game against Marseille, and I repeat this decision, yeah creates big damage.
"I hope the club understands this and then, in the right situation, they also speak with the people they have to speak to because otherwise, it is only the manager to speak. I think the club has to be strong because I repeat, this situation creates big, big damage. Now we don't know what will happen next week. If we go out, then I want to see."
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