Players and managers are unhappy as VAR becomes paramount after denying Antoine Semenyo another goal following a controversial offside decision on Tuesday night
Manchester City denied due to VAR intervention on Tuesday night (Image: )
Newcastle defender Dan Byrne admits the wording of the law means Antoine Semenyo’s second goal should have been ruled out, but the offside call and VAR intervention is ultimately something he “doesn’t want to see”.
The Manchester City rookie scored the opening goal at St James’ Park as the visitors secured a 2-0 victory in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final. Semenyo thought he had doubled his tally for the night shortly after flicking home from a corner kick, but VAR intervened.
There was no appeal from Newcastle’s backline, but a technique suggested offside. Erling Haaland was marked by Malik Thiau and was deemed to have denied the opportunity to clear the ball for offside, resulting in the goal being ruled out.
But Byrne was honest in admitting that his players didn’t want their goal to be canceled for such offside. The player said, “I think it’s the right decision, but I don’t like the idea of subjective offside. It’s either offside or it’s not offside. We don’t want to see that, but under the terms of the law it shouldn’t be allowed.”
read more: Antoine Semenyo’s dream start to life at Manchester City continues after Eddie Howe’s angry departureread more: 13 VAR errors in the Premier League and which club was hit the hardest?
Semenyo has scored two goals in two games since joining from Bournemouth, but has revealed that he feels he should have scored three goals, saying: “I should have scored the second goal!”
Pep Guardiola claimed the controversial decision made his team “stronger” and rallied to find second cover for Rayan Cherki, putting them firmly in control of the draw. Bernardo Silva, who has won this tournament four times in the past, said, “It was supposed to be 3 wins and 0 losses, but we are pretty used to this now. It’s very frustrating because the last time we came here, a lot of the decisions were against us.”
Erling Haaland’s position was ultimately canceled out after he choked Antoine Semenyo’s second goal (Image: )
Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards was also critical, saying: “I understand the process, but VAR was not introduced for this reason. This is an anti-goal they said they would not do, they said they were not going to re-try the game.”
“For me, this is a re-refereeing of the match. Both sides are in the game. That may be true, but I don’t think we should give away a goal for this. Why does it take five minutes?”
City are unhappy with VAR after the committee admitted that Phil Foden was unfairly denied a penalty the last time they played at Newcastle (they lost that game 2-1).
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