April 11 – They say goals change games. So do referees’ decisions. The introduction of video assistant referees from the World Cup onwards may have split opinion but if ever there was a case for the system to be used, it was surely in Tuesday night’s Champions league quarter-finals.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is one of those who his doubts about VARs, for the time being at least. Ceferin says they will not be implemented in his competitions until the system is less confusing for players and fans alike and it can be proved that VARs solve more problems than they cause.
Fair enough but just tell that to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
To say Liverpool got the breaks in the all-English quarter-final clash is an understatement. Their first goal in the home leg, after which they stormed to a 3-0 upset, was offside and should not have counted. Who knows what the result might have been if the correct decision had been made.
Refereeing errors happen, of course they do. But they are supposed to even out and City can consider themselves highly unfortunate to have been on the end of an even worse mistake in the return game on Tuesday when they had a perfectly good goal disallowed while pegging Liverpool back.
Had that one counted, the runaway Premier League leaders would have led 2-0 at halftime and may well have gone on to wipe out the deficit and achieve the mother of all comebacks. No wonder manager Pep Guardiola was so incensed and got sent to the stands.
Ultimately, the task proved too great. City never recovered from the perceived injustice and Liverpool came on strong, winning the game with a textbook second-half display to notch up an emphatic 5-1 aggregate victory and take a further giant step towards their first Champions League final for a decade. With their devastating front three, they will be a fearsome opponent for anyone but to win anything in football you need a slice of luck and they certainly got that.
Ironically, the miracle was achieved not in Manchester, as some had anticipated, but in Rome where Roma achieved the unthinkable by reeling in a three-goal deficit to knock out mighty Barcelona.
Yet here, too, the referee made a crucial mistake which, under the rules of VAR, may not have been overturned but which certainly helped Roma on their way. The home side might well have been down to 10 men before they scored their decisive third goal, only for the referee to let Federico Fazio get away without a second yellow after what looked like a blatant foul.
That, however, should not detract from the fact that Barcelona deserved nothing after being outfought by massive underdogs who turned history on its head amid a deafening din inside the Stadio Olimpico.
“It wasn’t luck. This is what happened,” said a euphoric Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco after one of the greatest comebacks in European football history that sent shock waves across the globe. “But this isn’t enough. We can’t be satisfied. This squad needs to aim for (the final in) Kiev. This is an extraordinary squad. Why shouldn’t we aim to get there?”
Judging by last night’s monumental performance, no-one would rule it out. Let’s just hope that whoever reaches the final does so without too much help from the officials.
Andrew Warshaw is chief correspondent of Insideworldfootball and was formerly Sports Editor of the European. Contact him at moc.l1713976002labto1713976002ofdlr1713976002owedi1713976002sni@w1713976002ahsra1713976002w.wer1713976002dna1713976002