Angry Tottenham players surrounded referee Danny Makkelie at the full-time whistle
(Picture: REUTERS)Tottenham’s players were left bemused and furious after a last-gasp winner against Sporting CP was controversially ruled out in chaotic scenes.
Spurs’ stadium erupted into pandemonium in the dying seconds of Wednesday night’s hard-fought Champions League Group D clash after Harry Kane struck with almost the last kick of the game to seemingly seal their progress through to the last 16.
However, that euphoria proved to be crushingly short-lived as the goal was chalked off for offside following a lengthy VAR check, leading to plenty of remonstrations on the pitch and apoplectic Tottenham manager Antonio Conte being shown a red card for his angry protests.
Eric Dier was among the irate Spurs players that surrounded Dutch referee Danny Makkelie at the full-time whistle, with BT Sport cameras picking up his confused questions.
“But why?! Why?! The ball went backwards!” a disbelieving Dier states before another Tottenham coach loses his cool.
"It was offside..."
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 26, 2022
"But why?! Why?! The ball went backwards!"
Eric Dier is in disbelief! 😬#UCL pic.twitter.com/2BQaTwQ4u5
Full-back Matt Doherty was another to express his bewilderment at the rules as Spurs were left needing at least a draw against Marseille next week in order to progress, telling BT: "I think you can see from the celebrations we thought we won it. Pfffft. I don't really know what happened at the end.
"I thought because it went backwards and hit a defender it was a different phase of play. I'll have to look at the rule book. A few of us don't have a clue what happened.
"If we're being honest we didn't play that well. They nullified us in the first half and deserved to be ahead.
"We're top of the group. It's not how we wanted the night to go but it's still in our hands.
"I wish we knew [why they can't play well for a whole game]. We're analysing games and training sessions, watching a lot of videos to find out how we can peform for 90 minutes and play like we can play.
"We have a few days to look back and see what went wrong before we play on Saturday.
"I think it's clear to see we want to play like we did in the second half for 90 minutes. We know we're capable of doing it but it's what we're struggling to do."
Ridiculous. I hate the way VAR is being used.
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) October 26, 2022
Former Spurs players and pundits also slammed the decision on social media, with Gary Lineker writing: “Ridiculous. I hate the way VAR is being used.”
