A win would have put Tottenham in the Champions League round of 16, but after a long consultation, the supposed winning goal in the 95th minute didn’t count. Coach Antonio Conte leaves that angry – he first picks up the red card and then holds a reproachful monologue.

Team manager Antonio Conte from top English club Tottenham Hotspur vented his anger at the video assistant (Video Assistant Referee, VAR for short) in an angry speech after the wild final phase against Sporting Lisbon (1: 1). “The VAR is doing a lot of damage,” complained the 53-year-old. He sees “no honesty” and feels “a lot of injustice”.

The Dutch referee Danny Makkelie took back Harry Kane’s supposed winning goal (90.5) in the Champions League group game after almost three and a half minutes of consultation with video assistant Pol van Bokel for offside. Conte then saw the red card because of wild protests, and at the subsequent press conference he indicated that his team was at a permanent disadvantage. After his two-minute monologue, the Italian immediately left the podium.

“I don’t think we have much luck with VAR. I would like to see if they would make such a decision and, I repeat, an unfair decision against a big team in an important game,” said Conte: “Sometimes can You accept decisions like that, but when you don’t see honesty, you get very upset.”

His team had “just been unlucky” with the VAR in both the Champions League and the domestic league this season, he continued. With a win against Sporting, the Spurs would have reached the round of 16 as group winners. Instead, they now need a point at Olympique Marseille to progress safely on Tuesday, Conte will then be red-banned.

The VAR intervention in the parallel game between Atlético Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen also caused a stir. Referee Clement Turpin had actually already blown the whistle when the score was 2:2 when he suddenly grabbed the microphone – and a little later decided on a hand penalty for Madrid. The players, actually already on their way from the field, had to get ready again. The penalty didn’t change the result, however, because Leverkusen keeper Lukas Hradecky was able to deflect Yannick Carrasco’s shot.

(This article was first published on Thursday, October 27, 2022.)