01 October 2023 , 00:00
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Both Ange Postecoglou and Jurgen Klopp were in agreement that VAR officials are liable to make genuine mistakes following a controversial clash between Spurs and Liverpool on Saturday night.
A frenzied contest culminated in Joel Matip's 96th-minute own goal giving Postecgolou's men a 2-1 win, after the visitors had battled through the final 21 minutes with just nine men. Indeed, the result has been overshadowed by a number of controversial calls, with both Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota sent off for Liverpool.
But another major flashpoint came in the moments following Jones' departure, with Luis Diaz pouncing on Mo Salah's pass to seemingly put the Reds ahead. However, the goal was flagged offside with a VAR check cementing the decision, only for replays to later prove otherwise - forcing the PGMOL into a public apology over the misuse of the system.
"No form of technology is going to make the game errorless," Postecoglou told reporters after his side remained unbeaten in the Premier League. "The game is littered with historical refereeing decisions that weren't right.
"People think VAR is going to be errorless but there's so little in the game that is factual. People are going to make mistakes and the bar is raised even higher."
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Despite his inevitable anger at the key decisions going against his team, Klopp too was diplomatic: "When you see [the offside goal] back it's really clear. Nobody did it on purpose. Whatever I say here just creates headlines."
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool suffered a late defeat at Tottenham and finished the game with nine men (Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Should VAR be scrapped? Comment below.
However, the German boss did make it clear he knew the goal should have stood, saying: "The offside goal. That is not offside when you see it, they drew their lines wrong," he said. "The ball is between Mo's legs, they drew the line wrong and didn't judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right. It is so tough to deal with it."
The subsequent PGMOL statement read: "PGMOL acknowledges significant human error occurred during the first-half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool. The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed by the on-field team of match officials. That was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene."
Despite trailing to Son Heung-Min's first half goal, the 10 men of Liverpool again showed real character to respond with Cody Gakpo levelling before the break. But Jota's two second-half yellow cards left the Reds with their backs to the wall, and finally the pressure told.