That we love them, these mentally ill end of matches, in shocks hanging from the Champions League. We were spoiled on Wednesday evening between the grotesque scenario of Atlético de Madrid-Bayer Leverkusen (2-2), and a Tottenham-Sporting Lisbon (1-1) in explosive additional time. And for good reason, Harry Kane was denied the goal of qualification for a supposed offside, after a deflection of the head of Emerson Royal (1-1, 90th + 5).
This decision taken by the VAR, after endless minutes of consultation, sent Spurs manager Antonio Conte berserk, after he initially celebrated the goal like a madman. So much so that the former Inter coach was excluded, for his protests, by Dutch referee Danny Makkiele, and that he will therefore miss the decisive match in Marseille next Tuesday.
“When you don’t see honesty…”
“Everyone entered the field, but it was me who was expelled,” commented Antonio Conte during a press conference that he sent after a single question. Not without dropping a few strong tackles against the refereeing corps beforehand.
There are times when you have to be smart: there, the referee has just canceled a goal which was valid because the deflection was made behind for Kane… I think we are not very lucky with the VAR . I would like to see if they would make that kind of unfair decision against a big team in an important game. This creates a big damage for the club and I hope that our managers will speak about it to whom it may concern. Sometimes we can accept this type of decision, but when we do not see honesty, we are very angry. »
Not the kind of house, however, for Antonio Conte, aware that his group will now have to hang at least one draw, in a Velodrome that we imagine in fury, to climb to the round of 16. He will therefore not be in the front row to appreciate the use of VAR in this decisive match for the European future of his team.