SUNSPORT refereeing expert Mark Halsey believes Fernando Llorente’s dramatic winner should NOT have stood.
The Spaniard was awarded a goal which sent Tottenham into the Champions League semi-finals for the first time – after an agonising VAR review.
Reuters
Video footage clearly showed the ball hitting the Spaniard’s arm before it went in.
But SunSport can reveal this angle was amazingly not afforded to Turkish ref Cuneyt Cakir.
And ex-top ref Halsey said: “If Cakir gets to see that replay then the goal is disallowed.
“Llorente leads with his arm and makes a movement towards the ball. So you could argue that is deliberate.
“But this camera angle was not shown by broadcasters to the officials – and I have no idea why it wasn’t.
“You clearly saw Cakir saying the ball hit Llorente’s hip after he watched replays on the pitchside monitor.
“Why were all the camera angles not afforded to the match officials?
“That was a massive, massive call but on the evidence Cakir was afforded, you cannot criticise him for awarding the goal.
“Law changes that come into effect next season would see this goal disallowed, as a handball only has to be ‘accidental’ if it results directly in a goal.”
To make matters worse for Manchester City, Raheem Sterling saw an injury-time winner ruled out for offside after more VAR intervention
And Halsey added: “And it was the correct decision to rule out Raheem Sterling’s late’s strike because Sergio Aguero was offside and involved in active play when it was touched to him by Bernardo Silva.”
